Season 3
by Bexsan
Summary: Since ABC cancelled V I decided to write my own season three. Just as a fun thing. It's mostly about Erica Evans and Kyle Hobbes but some of the other characters too.
1. Project Aires

Erica Evans wasn't a weak person. She was a tough, confident FBI agent. She liked her job and always followed the protocol. At least until the V's arrived. After that, everything had gone downhill. Her family was gone. Joe was dead and Tyler had left to live onboard the ship with the Visitors. Both of her partners, who she had trusted with her life, had turned out to be Visitors. Just like Ryan. But Ryan was not like the Visitors. As he said a few weeks ago; he is one of them but he isn't _with_them. She believed him. And no good had come out of that. Anna was still here and her plans weren't stopping anytime soon.

As Erica sat there next to a completely hypnotized Jack Landry in the middle of an even bigger crowd of people she didn't know what to do anymore. Lisa had failed to try to assassinate her mother at the warehouse a few hours earlier. Ryan and Joshua were still up on the ship and she hadn't heard a word from them since she told them Lisa failed. Erica hadn't talked to Chad at all. Jack was gone. Not physically, but right now, he and every other human outside was mentally gone. But that's not what hurts the most. The fact that Kyle Hobbes had just disappeared without even trying, when he had promised her that he would be there, is what's making her feel like this.

Erica looks up at the bright light coming from the bottom of the ship. She feels the anger inside her rise the more she looks at it. If Anna hadn't arrived and started to invade their planet, everything would be as it used to. Joe would be alive and Tyler would be safe. Everyone would be safe. But that's not the case now. Anna wants their DNA to fast track her evolution. She wanted Tyler. Erica just couldn't take it anymore.

"Are you satisfied now Anna? Your wish has come true, everyone is gone!" Erica screams as she stands up from where she sat on the ground next to Jack. "You've destroyed _everything_! But I won't let you win this fight if I so have to die for it!" She yells as she stares up at the ship. Her usually bright blue eyes have turned dark blue with anger.

Erica continues to yell even though she knows Anna won't hear a single word of what she says. But it feels good to let it all out. All the anger and frustration she has been keeping in for weeks comes to the surface. Suddenly she feels a hand grab her shoulder gently but yet firmly. Her agent mode kicks in and she does a swift turn and swings her right fist against the person behind her and then her left, just like she is trained to do. Her hair falls down before her eyes, blocking her sight from seeing who it is. A stronger hand grabs hers wrist and pulls her forward. She knows it's him.

"Ssh! Erica, it's me. It's okay." He whispers as he pulls her back against his hard chest. "It's alright." The words are comforting even though she knows he can't promise that everything is going to be alright. But it's not enough. Suddenly Erica pulls back and starts to pound his chest with her fists and tries to push him away.

"Where were you? Why did you leave me alone? You promised you'd be here, you promised!" She says as she starts to sob. Hobbes just pulls her tighter against his body. His arms wrapped around her once again and cradled her as her body shook. She allowed him to comfort her. He really was the only one that could right now. She needed him, even though she would never admit it.

Hobbes frowned as he looked up and around at all the people standing with hypnotized smiles on their faces. It looked disgusting. But since it was Anna's work, he wasn't very surprised. It only made him more angry and frustrated when there was nothing he could do. They just had to wait and see what the consequences were when everyone woke up from their hypnosis, if they ever do wake up.

Hobbes continues to hold Erica close to his body as her cries subsided. He could feel her relax as he runs his hands up and down her back. Her tears were soaking through his shirt. She pulls her head back from his neck and stares up at him. Kyle looks into her bright blue eyes. They are so deep and filled with so many emotions. He could see everything so clearly. They stare at each other for a long moment, not saying anything, until Erica takes a shaky breath and wipes her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

"I'm sorry" she whispers weakly. Her voice is hoarse and her eyes red and puffy from all the crying.

"Hey, don't apologize" He answers as he strokes away a single tear that made its way down her cheek. "If anyone should apologize here, it' me. I screwed everything up." He continues with guilt shown evident in his eyes.

"We all screwed up" she answers with a tiny smile.

"Yeah, you're right" he continues with a small grin as he tucked some strands of her blond hair behind her ear.

Erica lets out a sad sigh and closes her eyes. It had been a long day and the exhaustion was finally catching up on her. And the fact that she hadn't slept more than a few hours every night wasn't helping with the fatigue. The nightmares were bad. She would wake up in cold sweat almost every night. Her heart would beat twice as fast as it usually does. After she woke up she never went back to sleep. It was just too hard. Usually she just got up from bed and grabbed a glass of tequila to calm herself down. It helped a bit. So did her nights with Kyle. It was just supposed to be a onetime thing, but it went on. He came to her house late at night and she let him in. They drank. They talked. They kissed. They had sex. Then he left. Not because he wanted to, but because she had told him she didn't want anything more. But she did. She just couldn't tell him the truth.

Last night she didn't think he would come at all. Not after the big fight at the basement after the blue energy plan failed. She had been furious at all of them, including herself. At the site, Kyle had told her to blow the whole reactor up but she had listened to Ryan when he told her he could shut it down. Kyle had not been happy about it. But then when Jack told her there was a different between a calculated risk and senseless slaughter, Kyle suddenly said Jack was right and that they did the right thing.

When she left she was sure he wouldn't show up later that night. But he did. She couldn't figure out why. When she opened the door he stood there in his regular black outfit. A black t shirt and the thick black jacket she loved. It looked so good on him. Even though she was still mad at him, she let him in and looked the door behind them. As soon as she turned around Kyle shoved her up against the door and kissed her hard. Apparently he was a bit angry at her too. Not that she could blame him. Neither of them said anything as they started to tear each other's clothes off without breaking their lips apart. He'd put his hands on the back of her thighs and picked her up while she ran her fingers through his dark brown hair. It had been rough. Every bit of frustration was apparent. Frustration from the fight earlier. Frustration from not being able to do anything to stop the war. They were both mad at each other, which just created more passion in that moment.  
>But something was different last night. She expected him to leave afterwards like he usually did. But he stayed. He didn't say anything, just went to the other side of her bed. She tried to tell herself it was just meaningless sex. But it was starting to get more serious than that without any of them realizing. And that scared her.<p>

When she opened her eyes again they were met with his greenish blue ones. His face is only a few inches away and she can feel his warm breath against her jaw. He slowly leans forward. Their lips crash softly. It's sweet and innocent, compared to last night. Kyle places his hands on each side of her face as he deepened their kiss. Erica put her arms around his neck as she pressed her body against his. She let out a faint moan as his one of his strong hands found her lower back. When they finally came up for air Erica rested her forehead against his.

"Uhum" Someone cleared their throat behind them. They turned around was met with the uncertain, yet amused face, of Paul Kendrick.

"Here I am, thinking I made you a good agent Erica, but here you are, making out with a fugitive." Paul said as he raised his eyebrows questionably.

"Paul it's not what it looks like!" Erica answered quickly as she backed away from Kyle and looked at Paul with pleading eyes. "I- I... It's- Just don't- He is working with me!" She stammered as she tried to make up a good excuse for kissing the man that was on the top of Paul's most wanted list.

"Erica, calm down." Paul said as he took a few steps forward. "I know he is working with you and the Fifth Column." He shrugged. "He is also working for the Project Aires and has been for weeks." Paul continued as he looked at her.

_FLASHBACK TO WHEN HE WAS HELD ATT THE HEADQUARTER_

_Kyle Hobbes wasn't always a world known fugitive. Sure, he had been a criminal for a long time, but five years ago, when he learned that his sister Sarah had been murdered, Kyle lost the last family he had and it was just downhill since then. His parents died when he was just a teenager, and Sarah was all he had left. But then she was gone too. It was then that Kyle Hobbes started to block everything out. He kept all his emotions buried deep inside and just stopped caring about anything. He became a cocky, selfish fugitive. For five years he didn't let himself feel anything but anger. Anger against the men who drove the car that collided with Sarah's that night._

_Paul Kendrick had called him and told him to come to the underground headquarter to look at some information they had received from the federal bureau of investigation in Los Angeles. At first he refused to go but when they told him it could help the Fifth Column destroy Anna's plans for Tyler and the humanity he agreed. He wasn't happy about leaving Erica to deal with everything on her own but if he wanted to stay on the Aries project, he had to leave._

_Hobbes went down the stairs and into the stairwell that led down to the underground headquarters of Project Aires. It was two weeks ago that he had gotten an anonymous call that told him all about an underground hiding place where they gathered all the people that knew about the visitors real reason for coming here. Kyle didn't know how they managed to get his cell phone number or even find out where he was but when Paul Kendrick told him he knew that he was a member in the Fifth Column, he agreed to meet them to find out how much they actually knew.  
><em>  
><em>As he walked through the dark hall that led to the room Paul asked him to meet him in, he kept thinking about Erica. He hadn't seen her since they told Lisa about their plan to fake a kidnapping to get Anna alone. After he had left Lisa tied up and gagged in the warehouse, Kyle had taken all his stuff out of the basement and moved them to his new room at the underground station where Paul had asked him to stay for a while. He didn't like Paul Kendrick, but since he was a wanted fugitive he didn't have that much of a choice. This was his chance to make up for the things he had done to get on the list of wanted criminals.<em>

_He walks into the room he now can call his own and throws his bag on the floor next to the small bed where it lands with a thud. The bed lets out a creaky sound as he sits down and puts his head into his hands. Then the room goes silent again. The only thing that can be heard is his breathing._  
><em>Suddenly the door opens and Kendrick walks in. With him he has a yellow folder, probably filled with photos or documents regarding the V's. The door closes with a click behind him and Kendrick takes a chair and sits down opposite Kyle who's still sitting on the bed.<em>

_"What the hell was so important that you had to drag me away in the middle of the day?" Kyle asks with his deep British accent as he looks up at Kendrick._

_"This!" Kendrick answers firmly as he takes out a few photos and some papers from the folder he brought. He hands them over to Kyle who quickly checks trough them with a frown._

_"Where did you get these?" Kyle asks sternly as he looks up. "This is not what it looks like."_

_"Oh, well that's great!" Kendrick continues sarcastically as he throws his hands up. "I guess you have really good explanation for this!" He says with a threatening voice as he holds up one of the photos. The photo shows Kyle talking to Marcus, Anna's closest man. Her right hand. Her watchdog._

_"That bloody lizard there told me my sister was alive and that he had her on the ship" Kyle answers as presses his finger to Marcus face on the photo. "Then he blackmailed me into blowing up the building last week." He said and looked away._

_"What! You were the one who detonated the explosives?" Kendrick shouted as he stood up again. "Three of my agents and four civil hostages, including Joe Evans, died that day!" He yelled as he stepped back._

_"How the bloody hell was I supposed to know that was going too happened? They told me Eli Cohn and his men were the only people in that building!" Kyle shouted back as he stood up and started to pace forth and back next to the small bed. "They tricked me. I didn't know anything about the hostages or the people that were there. I didn't know she- ." Kyle stopped himself before he said too much. He didn't want to bring Erica into this; neither did he want Kendrick finding out that something was going on between the two of them._

_Paul Kendrick watched as the British man he had been searching for for several years carefully as he paced back and forth. Kyle Hobbes was a known enemy of the state and on the top of every law enforcement agency's most wanted list. He was a dangerous criminal. And yet here he was walking right next to one of FBI's highest ranked men. And he was even here voluntarily. Kyle suddenly stopped and rubbed his hands up and down his thighs quickly before he sat down at the bed again. Paul watched with fascination as the tough, badass fugitive started to tap his foot on the concrete floor. He almost couldn't believe it. Kyle Hobbes was nervous._

_"I assume by her, you mean Erica Evans?" Kendrick continued as he remembered what Kyle said just a minute ago. Kyle's head snapped up quickly at the mention of Erica. His expression was unreadable._

_"She didn't have anything to do with any of this; it was all my idea" Kyle answered quickly._

_"Don't bother, we already know everything. You, Erica and Jack Landry are all members of the Fifth Column here in New York." Kendrick said calmly as he looked at his phone. He shut it and then slipped it back into his pocket. "I have to go. There is a situation upstairs." He continued and walked out leaving Kyle alone with his thoughts._

_(20 minutes later)_

_As he sat with his back pressed against the wall all he could think about was what Kendrick had said. He knew everything about the Fifth Column. And even worse, he knew about him and Erica. Kyle mentally kicked himself for being so stupid to think that no one would ever find out. He knew that sleeping with Erica was bad, but he just couldn't help it. There was something about her that made him feel alive again for the first time in years. And he barely even knew her. Before he could think further about it the door slammed open. He looked up just as a worried looking Kendrick gave him a small gesture meaning he should follow him upstairs. And so he did._

_"Slow down there and tell me what the bloody hell is going on up there, will you?" Kyle asked as he caught up with him._

_"Anna is what's going on! Every human out there is hypnotized by some light coming from the bottom of the ship!" Kendrick answered angry. "And it's not only here, but every single city where there is a mother ship all the people are just standing there."_

_"But what about- ?"_

_"She's fine!" Kendrick answered before he even finished his sentence. "We brought her here about an hour ago. She doesn't know that you're here though."_

_"Mr. Kendrick! Erica Evans just ran out the door" a young woman said as she approached them where they stood._

_"You people let her go out there while the queen of lizards is hypnotizing the whole planet? Aren't agents supposed to be protecting people? Idiots!" Kyle yelled angrily as he turned around and ran for the door._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

_Meanwhile on the ship_

Chad Decker was not the kind of person who got nervous easily. He wasn't the kind of man who cracked under pressure. It took a lot to make him nervous since he was a world known news reporter. His face was on everyone's TV screen every single day. And to be that good, he couldn't get nervous about things. He just had to block all of that out. But there were some things that made his heart beat faster than usual, for example, being brought up to the mother ship to be questioned by Anna.

He swallowed hard as he walked towards the big room where he usually met with Anna when he came up to the ship. But this time it was completely different. He had three visitors escorting him there. He didn't really know what Anna wanted but his best guess was that she somehow had found out that he was a part of the kidnapping of her daughter. Then she probably also knew that he is a part of the Fifth Column and is working undercover to get information from her. That would be really bad. And now he was walking to his own death. He wondered how she would kill him when she met with him. Maybe she would bring her tail out and pierce his heart. He shuddered just at the thought of it. When he neared the big room Anna supposedly was in he felt his heart start to beat faster and faster. He took a shaky breath as he walked in. And there she stood. She was wearing one of her usual black outfits. Chad would have thought it was incredibly attractive if not for the circumstances. Anna turned around from where she was standing looking out through the massive windows and looked at him. Her expression was unreadable. He wasn't surprised.

"I have received some very disturbing information about you Chad." Anna said with a calm, yet firm tone.

"Yeah? And what would that be?" Chad asked as he pretended to be surprised.

"I have a recording from the kidnapping of my daughter earlier this morning." Anna said as she walked towards him. "I was shocked to find out that you were working with the men who kidnapped Lisa." She continued as she looked at him.

"I-…I- I have no idea what you're talking about." He answered quickly. Too quickly. "I would never do anything to hurt you or Lisa."

"Then what do you have to say about this?" Anna said as she played the recording with the message he and Hobbes had done. The message was the same, they were wearing their masks and Lisa sat gagged and tied to a chair at the warehouse. But it was his real voice that was playing and not the one Hobbes had remade. He was screwed. "I believe that is your real voice Chad." Anna said as she turned it off. "I am disappointed in you Chad. I really thought you were different."

"Anna I-…"He had to think of something fast. "I don't work with the Fifth Column." She slowly turned around to look at him. "Some men with masks grabbed me when I was on my way to one of your shuttles this morning." He swallowed as he thought of the next big lie he could tell her. "They forced me to do the recording and show it to the world." He said as calm as he could. If she didn't believe him he would end up dead. That he was pretty sure of.

"Do you remember anything about these men who supposedly grabbed you?" Anna asked firmly. Chad didn't know what to say. He couldn't understand if Anna really believed him or if this was another one of her fake acts.

"No." He answered firmly. "They put a bag over my head and then threw me in the back of some sort of vehicle." Chad continued as he looked away. This was going better than he thought it would. "I'm sorry Anna."

"No need to apologize if you didn't do anything bad Chad." Anna said with a small smile. He could clearly see that it was a fake one but Anna didn't know that. "I don't know why I doubted you." She continued as she walked back to the big window in the front of the room.

"Already forgotten."

"I have some important things I need to take care of." Anna said as she walked towards the exit.

"That's fine. I'll show myself out." he answered as he walked away.

Chad walked quickly through the long bright corridor. He had never felt this relieved in his entire life. He was still alive and Anna didn't know that he was a member in the Fifth Column. Anna had actually thought he was kidnapped by some men in masks when he told her. Of course it was a lie. When he thought about it, it was a really bad lie. He couldn't believe that she'd fallen for it. But she had. And that was the only thing that mattered at the moment. Now he just had to get off the ship as fast as possible so he could meet up with the rest of the team. Since he had spent a lot of time traveling back and forth with the shuttles, he knew what time the next one would leave. And the visitors that ran the shuttles recognize him which makes it easier to get on it.

As he walked down a small hallway he met the eyes of a medium built man who stopped right in front of him.

"You're Chad Decker, right?" the man asked quietly.

"Yes." Chad answered slowly as he eyed the man in front of him.

"I'm Joshua. I believe we have something in common." He said calmly.

"You're the Joshua who's working with Erica?" Chad asked as he glanced around to see if someone could hear them. But no one was around.

"Yes."

"Nice to finally meet you." Chad said as he nodded.

"What are you doing here?" Joshua asked after a few seconds.

"Long story." He said as he shook his head. "Do you know if the last shuttle has left yet? I need to be on it." Chad continued.

"It leaves in a few minutes." Joshua answered hesitantly. "But Chad, when you get down there, things are going to be different." He continued firmly as he looked him in the eye.

"What do you mean different? What has happened?" Chad asked with a worried look.

"Anna has been trying to bliss humans for a few days and today she finally succeeded." Joshua answered quietly as he saw someone walking past them.

"Bliss? What does that really mean?" Chad asked with confusion.

"It's like hypnosis. She takes away their emotions and makes them do anything she tells them to. And it's bad." Joshua told him.

They talked quietly for a few more minutes before Chad had to leave if he wanted to make it to the last shuttle. Joshua had explained a lot about the bliss and how it usually worked but that there could be different effects since it was humans. He also told him that Amy, Ryan's daughter, might be an even bigger threat than Anna if she continued to evolve as she did. Then Joshua had told him something awful. Ryan was dead. They had found him dead on the ship a few hours ago and Joshua suspected that he'd been killed by his own daughter. Even though Chad never really liked Ryan, he felt bad. He and Joshua had decided that Chad should get down to the ground again and contact Erica as fast as possible. She was their leader now and she needed to know what had happened today.

"Tell Joshua I want an update on how we are progressing on the DNA extraction." Anna said as she turned to Marcus who had arrived shortly after Chad Decker had left.

"Right away, my queen." Marcus answered with a nod and then he went to find Joshua. On the way out he passed Thomas who was on his way to meet Anna.

"My queen." Thomas said as with a nod when he came to stand in front of Anna. "Chad Decker is on his way down to the ground on the last shuttle."

"Good. That is exactly where I expected him to be." Anna answered calmly.

"But my queen, he was a part of the kidnapping of Lisa this morning?" Thomas asked a bit shocked. "You can't let him leave. He might be working with th-"

"Thomas!" Anna interrupted him firmly. "Chad Decker is not working for the Fifth Column." Anna said. "He lied to me. But I believe he did it to get a good storyline for his show. He was overtaken by a human emotion called greed." Anna continued as she looked at Thomas puzzled expression.

"How can you be sure that he is not actually working against you?" Thomas asked with a frown.

"Chad Decker may be good at making the humans believe everything he says." Anna answered as she started to walk towards the exit of the room. "But he can't lie to me."

Anna walked down the hallway to where the portal that went down to the dungeon Lisa was being held in was located. She had made it fifteen years ago to keep her own mother a prisoner without anyone knowing about it. If her people had found out that Diana was still alive, they wouldn't have seen her as their queen anymore. Diana was their queen. But now she was dead and Anna could rule her people as she wanted. Her plans for the humanity were progressing well, even though Lisa had betrayed her. Anna knew that Lisa had been affected by human emotions. She had fallen for Tyler for real. I wasn't just an act anymore. The human emotion called _love_ had proven to be a lot stronger than Anna had anticipated. But she wasn't going to let that stop her. Nothing could stop her now. She would defeat the Fifth Column and get the DNA from the humans she needed.

Lisa sat on the dirty floor of the dungeon. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying. Her mother had somehow found out that the kidnapping was staged, and that she was a part of it. She had no idea how her mother had found out about it, but she had. And now everything was ruined. Her mother knew that she was working against her. The rest of the Fifth Column might be in danger. Tyler was dead. He was only supposed to be an object for her. She was going to make him fall for her so that her mother could harvest his DNA. At first it had been going well. But she fell for him. Human emotions had taken over. _Love_ took over.

She was taken out of her thoughts as the sound of the portal reached her ears. Lisa turned her head slowly and looked at the exit. She wasn't surprised to find her mother standing there with her usual uptight expression. Lisa had never been able to read her mother. She was unpredictable. Strong. Cold. And she was pure evil. Lisa always knew that her mother's plans for the humanity and their planet weren't good, but she had never expected it to be this bad. And she had learnt it the hard way.

Lisa slowly stood up as she turned around fully to face her mother. Her knees hurt from sitting down for hours. But she didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. But she had a good reason for that. Tyler was dead and she had watched him die without being able to do something.

"Why are you here?" Lisa asked her mother with a hoarse voice.

"I came to tell you something." Anna answered coldly.

"Nothing you do or say to me matters anymore." Lisa continued as she looked at her mother with an empty look.

"That is not a way to speak to your mother. Neither to your queen." Anna said as she took a few steps towards her daughter.

They stood there, just looking at each other for a long while. Anna tried to see into her daughters mind to find out why she had betrayed her like she did. She knew that her love for Tyler was a part of it, but it wasn't the whole story.

"I am going to let you out of here." Anna surprised Lisa by saying so. Lisa had expected her to leave her there for years. After all, her mother had left her own mother down her for fifteen years.

"Why?" Lisa asked dryly.

"Because you are the future queen of our species." Anna said as she turned around and walked towards the portal. "Nothing can change that fact." She continued. She sounded almost frustrated about it. Which she probably was.

Just as Anna was about to get on the platform of the portal Lisa told her to stop.

"Why did you kill Tyler?" She asked as a tear made its way down her already tearstained cheek.

"You already know why Lisa. I did it to save our species." Anna answered calmly as she gave her daughter a sweet smile. A sweet, fake smile. "I know you hate me for sacrificing Tyler, but there is a way to bring him back."

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked with a confused look.

"The queen of our species can do almost everything. Bring a human back from the dead is not a hard thing to do." Anna answered right before she went up with the blue colored light.

_Back on the ground_

Erica sat on the white couch in her living room. But it didn't feel like it was her living room. She felt like she had never been here before. She felt lost. It was dark outside. The room was dim and completely silent. All that could be heard was her slow breathing. Erica looked at the bottle of tequila that stood at the small table in front of her. It was half empty. She and Kyle had shared some of it a few nights ago after a round of meaningless sex. Then she'd told him that she was tired and wanted to go to bed, which he knew meant an entire different thing. She wanted him to leave. And so he did.

As she leaned forwards to pour some of the contents in the bottle into a small glass she heard him. He was still in the kitchen. After Paul had explained everything to her she had told them that she was tired and needed to go home. Kyle had insisted on taking her home. She wasn't sure if he actually wanted to make sure she got home safe or if he just wanted sex tonight. He was too unpredictable.

Just as she tipped the glass back and let the burning sensation fill her throat, she saw him make his way into the living room in the corner of her eye. He sat down on the couch next to her and let out a sigh.

"You okay there?" He asked as he cocked his head slightly.

"No." She answered. "Nothing is okay. I haven't heard from Tyler since I told him the truth about the Visitors. The plan to assassinate Anna failed and then I found out that my colleges have been tracking me for weeks. And you left. So no, I'm not okay." Erica said as she looked him in the eye. She expected to find judging or maybe anger in his eyes, but all she saw was guilt mixed with compassion.

"I'm sorry that I left. There was some complications at the underground headquarter that your boss calls it." He said in a mocking voice that made her smile for a short second. "And I'm sure your kid is fine." He continued as he stood up. "I should go before they lock the doors to my cell."

"You can stay here if you want." Erica said as she looked up at him.

"You're sure?" He asked. He wanted to stay but he wasn't sure what she needed right now.

"Yeah." She answered as she grabbed the side of the couch as leverage to help her stand up. It had been a long week with not much sleep included. And it was starting to take its toll on her. As she stood up everything started spinning slightly. She wasn't sure if it was the lack of sleep or the alcohol.

Kyle frowned as watched her sway slightly as she stood up from the couch. He grabbed her by the waist to keep her from stumbling down on the couch again. She had been drinking, but not enough to make her feel dizzy. He knew she wasn't a light weight when it came to alcohol.

"Thanks." Erica said softly.

"You okay?" Kyle asked as he kept his hands on her waist.

"I'm fine." She answered quietly as she avoided his eyes. "Just stood up to quickly."

"You sure?" He said slowly. He wasn't entirely convinced.

"I'm fine." She said coldly as she glared at him. But she was far from fine. She was still feeling lightheaded and her body felt like concrete. Everything felt as if it were moving in slow motion. She felt weak and nauseated. "I'm just going to head to bed." She answered. Her throat felt dry as she swallowed.

Kyle knew that she probably wanted to be alone. But he also knew that Erica was stubborn. If something was wrong, she wouldn't tell anyone until she really had to. That was just the way she was. He'd figured that out during the last few weeks.

Erica took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her head was spinning with thoughts. The thoughts flowed through her head like steady waves. And it made the whole room spin. And the fact that _he_ still had his hands around her waist didn't help with the dizziness. She opened her eyes and took a step forward. Bad move.

Kyle watched her stumble again as she tried to take a step away from him. He tightened his grip with his left hand and slipped his right one under her arms to keep her from falling down. She leaned in to him and let him support her weight. Now he was worried.

"Erica…" Kyle said with a worried expression. "What's going on?" he continued as he held her.

"I don't feel very good." Erica answered weakly. She felt even more nauseated now that she was standing up. "I'm going to be sick." She said as she felt her stomach churn.

"Come here." Kyle said as he helped her to the small bathroom. She fell down to her knees and leaned over the porcelain toilet.

Erica breathed deeply, waiting for anything to come up. But it didn't. There was nothing to throw up seeing that she hadn't eaten much the last few days, just coffee and some fruit when she had the chance. And alcohol. She didn't have a problem with alcohol. It just made her feel better. She wanted to not hurt for a few hours. And just for a few hours she could forget about everything that was going on. She needed it.

As she kneeled on the floor she felt his eyes in the back of her head. She knew he was probably a little bit worried. She felt him crouch next to her and his hand started to rub her back slowly and soothingly. It felt so good. Tears stung her eyes as she closed the lid on the toilet and rested her head on her arms. The nausea wasn't as bad anymore but the dizziness and weakness was still there. She took a deep breath and looked up at him.

"This is really embarrassing." Erica said with a weak smile.

"I've been through worse." He answered as he gave her a small grin.

"I bet you have." she said softly. She had no idea what he'd really been through during the years he had been on the run. She wasn't sure that she even wanted to know.

"So what is going on?" Kyle asked slowly as he stroked her cheek. She never expected him to be this caring. He usually just cared about himself.

"I don't know." She answered as she closed her eyes and let out a small sigh.

"When was the last time you slept Erica?" He asked. His voice saw soft and caring but underneath was a layer of concern. "The last time you ate something?"

"I had an apple and a cup of coffee this morning." She answered nonchalantly.

"Coffee and some small mushy fruit are not called food." He said and he gave her a look.

"Yeah well I didn't have time!" Erica snapped as she glared at him.

"You didn't have time to eat anything during the last 12 hours?" He said angrily as he looked at her with an annoyed face. "Erica. You and I both know you had a hell of a lot of time to eat and you didn't." He continued firmly.

"What are you, my mother?" She shouted at him. She was getting mad. Her eating routines were none of his business.

"Maybe if you'd stop acting like a bloody kid I wouldn't have to be here!" Kyle told her harshly. He was frustrated that she wasn't taking care of herself. She didn't eat or drink enough. And by the pale skin and the bags under her eyes he was sure she wasn't sleeping enough either.

"Why do you even care? Why are you eve-" She didn't have time to finish the sentence as she felt the nausea creeping back up. And fast. She slammed the toilet lid open and started heaving and coughing. There still wasn't much in her stomach which made her feel like she was suffocating instead of retching. It hurt. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

She didn't know if he had left or not before she heard the sink go on. She kept heaving as the tears flowed steadily down her cheeks. She couldn't stop them. When she was done and the nausea had calmed, she flushed the toilet and wiped her mouth that now had an acidly taste because of the retching.

"Here." Kyle said as she handed her a glass of water to rinse her mouth with.

"Thank you." She answered weakly. Her throat was killing her. It felt dry and sore. She spit the water into the toilet and sat down the glass on the floor next to her. As she leaned back against the tiled wall. "I'm sorry." She said as the tears started to flow down her cheeks in abundance again.

"Hey it's okay. I'm sorry." Kyle said as he pulled her into a tight embrace. Erica put her head in the crook of his neck as he rubbed his hands up and down her back which always made her feel better. "It's okay. You're okay Erica." He continued in a whisper.

When she'd stopped crying and the nausea had passed entirely Kyle had made her eat a small ham sandwich and a glass of juice to get her blood sugar up. She hadn't realized how hungry she actually was before she'd taken a bite out of the bread. She gave him a small smile as she chewed the last piece of her sandwich. It actually tasted good.

"So now that you've eaten, let's get you to bed kiddo." He said with a smirk as he put the juice package back into the fridge.

"What?" Erica asked shocked. Did he really want sex or was he just kidding?

"Calm down, I meant for sleep." He said with a small laugh.

"Right. I knew that." She said quickly as he helped her to the bedroom.

"You know, I'm not an invalid. I can walk to my own bedroom." She said with a smile.

"Says the woman who nearly collapsed a few minutes ago." He answered with raised eyebrows. "You're worse than science boy."

"I am not!" she said as she started to take top of. By some reason she didn't mind that he was there. Maybe it was because he'd already seen her completely naked.

"I thought I told you. Sleep, not sex." Kyle said as he eyed her.

"Well, I'm not going to sleep in my jeans." She answered as she slid them off and threw them on the small chair next to the door before she slipped under the covers off the bed. "Come on." She said as nodded to the place on the bed next to her.

"I can sleep on the couch, its fine." He answered.

"Kyle. You've slept with me in this bed before. It's fine." Erica said as she put her head on the head board and looked at him. "And the couch is horrible."

"Okay then." He said with a nod as he started to take his shirt off. Erica watched his every move. His body was perfect. A lot of muscles. Some tattoos. When she looked up and saw him looking at her with raised eye brows she blushed and looked away.

"Like what you see Evans?" He asked with a huge grin as he pulled the covers back and lay down next to her. "You want some?"

"I am going to sleep now. There will be no sex." She said sternly, yet amusing. "I doubt I would even be able to stay awake. I am so damn tired." She said as she closed her eyes.

"You wouldn't have been able to fall asleep." He said seductively with his deep british accent. "Trust me."

**AN: This is my first story and I'm from Sweden so there might be some mistakes in the text. If you want me to continue, review and let me know :)**  
><strong>I don't own V or anything.<strong>


	2. Start Over

The sun was shining through the medium sized window above her bed when Erica woke up with Kyle next to her. She wasn't surprised that he was there. But he was much closer than he was when they went asleep. A lot closer. One of his arms were draped across her waist whilst the other one was nestled somewhere between her back whilst the other one was nestled somewhere between him and the bed. His rough legs were entangled with her soft ones. His chest was pressed against her back and she could feel his warm breath fanning her neck. His breathing was shallow, indicating that he was still asleep.

As Erica lay there, listening to his breathing, the memories of last night came back to her. She'd nearly collapsed from dehydration and exhaustion. And then she threw up. At least she had tried to. She remembered snapping at him as he told her she should have eaten something during the day. Of course she knew he was right, but she had been tired and couldn't really control herself. But he had stayed. He had helped her when she felt sick and then he'd made her something to eat. A small smile formed on her face as she thought of what everyone would say if she told them the badass fugitive was such a caring man after all. Not that she would tell anyone, but still it felt good. For the first time in months, she felt safe.

She felt him roll onto his back as his grip on her loosened. His arm was propped up behind his head, just like he usually slept. At least the first night he had slept here. The bed squeaked as she slowly turned around and looked at his half naked sleeping body. He looked so relaxed. She put her hand on his scalp and ran her hand through his tousled hair. He stirred slightly but didn't wake up.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – _

Jack Landry woke up with the bright sunlight shining on his face. He blinked hard and rubbed the tiredness from his face. As he looked around he realized that he was in the small bunk bed at the back of the church. He couldn't remember how he had gotten here last night. When he thought about it, he realized he didn't remember a single thing that had happened in the past twelve hours. The last thing he could remember doing, was walking from the basement where they all used to gather for their meetings. What he was walking to though, was completely gone. It was like someone had erased his entire short time memory.

He sat up and drew a hand trough his hair. It was all messy and tousled from sleeping. His eyes hurt when he blinked and his neck was sore. It almost felt as if he had been standing still, looking upwards for a long time. Not that he was surprised. Jack often stood outside and looked at the sky. Just looking. He was a believer. God was a big part of his life. That is why he used to look at the sky. But it was different now. When he looked up at the sky, he saw a giant ship.

"I see you've finally wakened up." He heard a voice say behind him. He recognized the voice very well. He'd heard it almost every day for twelve years.

"Father Travis." He said as he looked up.

"What are you doing here Jack?" Father Travis asked with a stern expression.

"I don't remember anything that has happened the last twelve hours." Jack answered honestly.

"Have you been drinking?" Travis said as he eyed him suspiciously.

"No father. At least I don't feel like I have." Jack answered with a shrug.

"Maybe you were hypnotized." Father Travis said slowly. Jack looked at him with a confused look. "Like the rest of the people were. At least the ones that were outside." Travis continued as walked over to the small sink in the corner of the room.

"What do you mean hypnotized? How did-?" He said as he stood up from the bed with a puzzled look on his face.

"Apparently some bright light was shining from the mother ship late last night." Travis answered as he handed Jack a glass of water. "The whole world was standing completely still, just looking up at this light." He continued with a sigh.

"That explains why my neck is sore." Jack said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Jack didn't know what to say. The world had been brain washed last night. He had been one of Anna's victims, along with everyone else that were outside in that moment. It was not okay. Not even close to okay. He was tired of Anna experimenting on humans. He had to stop it. But first he needed to find Erica and the rest of their team. He hoped that they knew more about the light than he did. If they had been inside last night, which he hoped, they would probably be alright.

He raised the glass of water to his mouth and let the cool liquid pour down his throat. It felt good. Cold and fresh. He closed his eyes as he tried to remember something from last night. But nothing came back. He sighed and opened his eyes again. Get it together Jack, he thought as he stood up and left for the door. He needed to find out more about what had happened with the people. And he knew someone who probably knew a lot. He needed to find Chad Decker.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V _

Hobbes woke up with the bright sunlight shining through the window. The covers were draped across his lower abdomen. He blinked a few times until his eyes adapted to the bright light. He closed his eyes and sighed. It took a few seconds before he remembered where he was. He had stayed at Erica's house. In her bed. With her. He opened his eyes and frowned as he looked at the empty space next to him. Erica wasn't here. And since the bed sheets were cold, she hadn't been here for a while.

Just as he was beginning to get a bit worried, he heard light footsteps walking around somewhere in the house. With a groan he sat up and reached for his jeans that were lying on the floor next to the bed. As he buttoned his belt and pulled the zipper up, he stopped to see if she heard him. But the house was completely silent, too silent for his liking. He cursed himself for sleeping so long if she might not be feeling good. She definitely hadn't been feeling well last night. And now he felt like an ass for not checking on her since then. He rubbed his face before he started walking towards the kitchen. But Erica wasn't there either. Before he could continue his search around the house, something caught his eyes. On the countertop was a medical folder. He knew he shouldn't read it. Or look at it at all. But he did.

There were a few papers in it. Medical documents. They were about nineteen years old according to the dates, which meant this were the medical files from when Erica was pregnant. Preeclampsia, high amounts of phosphor and a few other long words he didn't know what they meant. It was all there. Every single symptom she'd had during those nine months. Fainting, dehydration, increased pulse, hypertension and breathing problems were just the beginning of the list. And the amount of drugs and pills on that list made him sick.

"Find anything interesting?" He heard a soft voice ask him. He turned around and saw Erica leaning against the doorframe. She was wearing a pair of pajama shorts and a grey shirt. His grey shirt. Her blonde hair was tousled, not wavy as it usually was. "I doubt you do. There is nothing interesting in those documents." She continued with a smile as she walked to the countertop and stood opposite him.

"I didn't…mean to read them. I just-"He said slowly as waited for her reaction. She just looked at him like it was nothing. Maybe she really didn't mind.

"It's fine." Erica answered honestly. She grabbed two coffee cups and filled them both with warm steaming black coffee and handed one to him.

"You had a rough time during those nine months from what I read." Kyle said as put the folder back on the countertop.

"Yeah." Erica said softly as she looked away. Kyle frowned when he noticed that she was avoiding looking at him. He shouldn't have said anything about the pregnancy. He realized that now. It was an emotional subject and he decided to change it.

"So, have you eaten your daily apple yet?" Kyle asked with a grin as he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it.

"No I think I'll save it for later." Erica answered sarcastically as she rolled her eyes at him.

"And pass out again?" He said with raised eye brows.

"I never passed out." Erica said firmly as she glared at him.

"Oh I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. You _almost_ passed out." He said in a mocking voice as he tilted his head slightly to side and looked her in the eye. "If I hadn't been there to catch you, you would have ended up on the floor." He continued as he turned to the fridge again. "And you would have one hell of a headache from the fall today. So you should actually be thanking me."

"Thank you Kyle, for preventing me to fall down and hit my head on my living room table." Erica said with a grin.

"How the bloody hell do you stay alive? There is nothing eatable in your fridge." Kyle asked with a frown. He was shocked when he opened the fridge. There was barely any food in it, just some fruit and vegetables and a few plates with leftovers. And a package with milk.

"I haven't really had any time to go to the grocery store." Erica answered as she walked up next to him. She looked at the empty space in her refrigerator. It had been a while since she ate anything in her house. She had picked up some fast food most of the days. "I picked up chinese food a few days ago." She continued with a shrug.

"I hope you didn't have the same thing I ate in Hong Kong." He said with a wince as he thought back of the horrible taste. Erica just smirked at him. She was feeling better today. Relaxed. She had slept the whole night without any nightmares.

"Well, since you apparently don't bother to buy food, we'll have to think of something." Kyle continued as he opened the cabinet and checked for something they could eat. He found some bread that wasn't too old. And peanut butter.

"Well, I'm going to see if I can reach Tyler." Erica said as she picked up the phone and walked into the living room. As Kyle made some sandwiches for them, he could hear her dialing the number.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Lisa walked through the long hallway that led to the room where Joshua usually was. Her mother had let her out from the dungeon. She actually thought Lisa would be on her side now that she let her out. But she was wrong. Lisa was heartbroken. Her mother had killed Tyler and made her watch. And now she regretted that she hadn't killed her when she had the chance. Erica had been right. Her mother didn't have a trace of human emotions.

"Joshua." She said as she walked up behind him.

"Lisa." He said as he turned to look at her. "How did you get out?"

"My mother let me out, believing that I would trade sides because of it." She said with disgust.

"I see." He answered calmly. He wasn't worried. Lisa wouldn't trade sides for anything. He had been feeling human emotions for a long time and he knew how they worked.

"My mother told me that she could revive Tyler if she wanted to." Lisa said with a broken voice. "Is it true?"

"Humans are easy to revive. But only the queen can do it. Your mother will never agree to it and you know that." He said sadly.

"Then we need to take her down." She said firmly. "I'm ready to become queen. I need to get Tyler back."

"You need to be careful. Your mother knows that you betrayed her. She will keep an eye on you." Joshua said as he looked around, making sure that there wasn't anyone around. "But we need to get Ryan's daughter away from her. Amy is a bigger threat than your mother." He continued slowly.

"Can you minimize Amy's strength if she is unconscious?" Lisa asked.

"I think so." Joshua answered as he looked at her.

"Then we need to do that in order to eliminate my mother." Lisa said as she walked away.

Lisa walked away from Joshua and towards the space shuttles. The next one didn't leave until tonight but she had to be on it. She needed to get off the ship and away from her mother. Everything that had happened, it was too hard. She knew what she needed to do next and that was to find Erica Evans and tell her what had happened.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V _

"He isn't answering his phone." Erica said as she came back to the kitchen and grabbed the sandwich he was holding. She leaned against the countertop and looked at him. She took a bite and watched him with an amused face as he picked up a new piece of bread.

"What is it with you and stealing my stuff?" Kyle asked with a grin as he leaned against the countertop next to her.

"It's just a piece of bread and some peanut butter." She answered and tried not to laugh.

"Yeah well, you're wearing my shirt too." Kyle said as he nudged her shoulder lightly. He didn't mind though, it looked good on her. He grinned as she looked down at herself, as if she just realized she actually was wearing his clothes. But then she shrugged with a small smile and raised a glass of milk to her mouth.

"Admit it. You like my _stuff_." Kyle leaned in and whispered in her ear. He felt her tense and her breathing was getting faster and faster with each breath. She was getting turned on. Mission accomplished. He took a step so that he was standing in front of her. Then he put his hands on each side of her on the countertop. He leaned forward until his face was inches away from hers. Her eyes were sparkling with excitement and desire.

"I do." She whispered seductively and licked her lips.

"I know you do." He muttered as he brought his lips to hers. Her arms immediately wound around his neck and her hands automatically went to his hair as the kiss deepened. One of his hands left the countertop to rest at her hip. He could feel the heat radiating from her body. He was getting more and more turned on by the second.

As the kissing intensified he brought his other hand to her hip. He started to slide them up her sides, taking the shirt with him in the process. Her skin was soft and smooth against his hands. He felt one of her hands snake its way down and start to unbutton his belt whilst the other one was pulling him closer to her body. He had to groan when she pressed her small frame against him. He ran his hands down her ass and grabbed the back of her thighs. He picked her up and put her on the countertop in one swift move. Her legs instantly wrapped around his waist.

"Are we going to do this now?" Erica asked breathlessly as she pulled away as looked at him. Her eyes were dark blue with desire.

"I bloody hope so." He answered as he leaned in to kiss her again. "Cause I really hate cold showers." He groaned as her hands found his hair again.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Sid paced back and forth nervously on the concrete floor in the basement they used as a meeting place. There used to be computers, document and all kinds of stuff. But everything was cleared out. Jack had called him yesterday and told him that the plan to eliminate Anna at the warehouse had failed and that Hobbes had left. Then Jack suddenly stopped talking and the line went dead. Sid had seen the light coming from the ship on the news. Apparently the people inside weren't affected. Since that Sid hadn't been able to read him. Or Erica for that matter. And he was worried.

Suddenly the door slammed open and Chad came down the stairs quickly. He looked as worried and confused as he was. But he might know something about what had happened or where everyone was. After all, his job was to find information fast and then tell the people.

"Chad. Do you know where Erica or Jack is? Cause I haven't been able to reach them since yesterday and Jack's phone went dead when I talked to him, maybe something has happened to them? Anna might have found out-" Sid rambled as he looked at Chad.

"I haven't heard from either of them." Chad answered slowly. "But I don't think Anna knows anything about us." He continued with a nod.

"What happened to you last night?" Sid asked confused. "How do you know that Anna doesn't know anything?"

"A few of her men came to my workstation and escorted me up to the ship. I thought she knew about me, about all of us, but she just had this recording with my real voice from the kidnapping yesterday." Chad answered as he thought back to his visit with Anna. "I told her some men grabbed me and forced me to do it. I think she actually fell for it." He continued as he swallowed. "At least I hope so."

"Well that's good, right?" Sid answered uncertainly. "At least you weren't under hypnosis like the rest of the people."

"It's actually called _bliss_." Chad said as he put his hands in his pockets.

"How do you know that?" Sid asked with a confused look.

"When I was on my way to the shuttle on the ship last night, I met Joshua. He is a member on the Fifth Column and works for Anna. He told me that Anna is trying to bliss humans and as we saw last night, she succeeded. And that is a very bad thing. She can control them when they're under her bliss." Chad said firmly.

"That makes sense. It's been her plan ever since she came here. Anna wants to control us so they can do their invasion faster." Sid said just as the door opened and Jack walked down the stairs.

"Chad. Sid" He said as he nodded at them. "Are you both okay?" He asked as he walked up to them.

"Yeah, as okay as anyone can be at the moment, considering what is going on." Chad answered and Sid nodded slowly. "Have you heard from Erica or Hobbes?"

"No. Not since yesterday." Jack said as he swallowed hard. He was worried about her. "Ryan?" He continued.

"Ryan is dead." Chad said slowly as he looked between the two men before him.

"What do you mean he's dead?" Jack asked with a deep sadness in his voice. It didn't matter who died, he felt just as bad for every one of them. It was just the way he was.

"He was killed by his daughter up on the ship last night." Chad answered quietly. He never really knew Ryan that well but now he was dead and that hurt. "Joshua told me when I was on my way down." He continued as he looked down at the concrete floor.

"But his daughter is only a few weeks old?" Jack asked with a frown. He was confused.

"I think I can explain that." Sid said as they turned to look at him. "I found something when I tested Malik but I couldn't figure out what it was. But I think I know now." He continued with a nod.

"And?" Chad answered impatiently.

"The Visitors are more complex than we are, obviously, and I think that since Ryan's daughter is half human and half V, she is even more developed than everyone else. She grows faster. She is stronger." Sid said as he looked at them.

"This explains why Joshua said that Amy could be an ever bigger threat than Anna if she continued to evolve like she does." Chad said.

"We need to figure what to do. And we need to get a hold of Erica." Jack said firmly.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"Well, who needs coffee after a wake up like this?" Erica said breathlessly as she put her head on his shoulder. She had put her shorts and bra back on and Kyle was wearing his boxers. A few minutes ago though, nothing was on.

"I don't know. You seem kind of tired there Erica." Kyle answered with a grin as he started to slide his hands up and down her sides. "You need another wake up?" He whispered in her ear.

"No." Erica said as a faint moan escaped her lips. He smirked to himself. "I need a shower." She continued as she pushed him away and hopped down onto the floor.

When Erica came out from the bathroom Kyle was sitting on one of the chairs in the kitchen. He was dressed in his usual clothes. His dark jeans and comfy jacket. She smiled at him as she grabbed her own jacket and went to the door.

"Where are we going?" Kyle asked as he followed her out to the car.

"I have eleven missed calls from Jack, Sid and Chad." Erica answered as she sat down in the passenger seat. We need to go to the basement" She continued as he started the car.

"Okay then." Kyle said as he backed out of the driveway and started driving down the street.

"Thank you by the way." Erica said softly. "For last night. I wasn't really myself yesterday." She continued quietly as she glanced at him.

"It's fine." He said as he looked over at her for a second before he focused his eyes on the road again. "Besides, I got to sleep in a comfy bed instead of the one at the secret underground place or whatever it is." He continued with a small smirk.

"Oh, so the only reason you stayed was because I offered you a place to sleep?" Erica said in a teasing voice.

"Nah I would have stayed anyway, the bed was just a bonus." He said as he turned in on the small alley that led to his old hiding place and parked the car. "I may be a selfish ass, but I wouldn't have left you alone last night." He said sincerely as he turned to look at her. What he said was true. He would never had left when she was feeling bad.

As he looked into her blue eyes he saw traces of uncertainty and embarrassment. Kyle knew that Erica was tough, but under all of that confidence she was just human. He also knew that it took a lot to get her to show it. She didn't want anyone to know how she really felt. He'd learnt that over the past few weeks. She buried all her emotions deep inside until it was too much for her to handle anymore. He knew this because he used to do the same. But he had changed.

"Let's go inside." Erica said after a while as she got out of the car. She didn't know what to answer him. She had no idea what he really meant by saying he wouldn't have left yesterday. As she walked to the door she heard his footsteps right behind her in the gravel. She waited for him to open the door, since she didn't have her key anymore. He unlocked the door but before he opened it, he grabbed her elbow and turned her so that she was looking at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked slowly. He didn't know if she was bothered because of what he said or if she was feeling bad again. But then she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the lips and a smile as she pulled away and went down the stairs. Apparently she felt fine.

"Erica!" Jack said with relief as he saw her coming down the stairs. "Thank God you're alright!" He continued as he embraced her. Chad patted her shoulder gently and Sid squeezed her arm to show their relief that she was okay.

"Well well isn't this comfy?" Hobbes said as he walked down the last steps of the stair. They all turned to look at him, confused and surprised. Erica thought she saw a flash of jealousy in his eyes when he looked at Jack, who was just stepping out of his embrace with Erica.

"So you've decided to join the group again?" Jack said with a firm voice. He was a bit mad at Hobbes for leaving when something went wrong. But he wasn't exactly surprised.

"Who said I left?" Hobbes answered dryly as he looked at Jack with a challenging look.

"Wouldn't be the first time you ran, would it?" Jack said as he looked at him.

"Okay that's enough! We have things to discuss here." Erica said firmly as she looked at them both. "I'm glad you guys are okay after what happened yesterday." Erica continued as she turned to look at Sid and Chad.

"Yeah, you too." Chad said with a nod.

"Have any of you heard from Ryan?" Erica said as she looked at them. Sid looked up and Chad sighed at the mention of Ryan. "Jack, where is Ryan?" She asked him even though she already knew the answer.

"He's with God now." Jack said with a sad look.

"How?" Erica said as she swallowed. She had to focus on the next move and not the fact that Ryan was dead.

"Joshua thinks that his daughter did it." Chad said as he looked at Erica. "She is not like the other Vs since she is growing really fast and apparently she is a lot stronger."

"She sounds like an evil little kid." Hobbes said dryly.

"Hobbes. Why don't you tell us all about the Project Aires?" Erica said as she turned to look at him. Jack gave her a confused look.

"There is nothing to tell more than that it's a group of government people who is working against the Vs. They're like us, but stronger and bigger. On the other hand they're idiots." Hobbes said with a shrug.

"So they are like the Fifth Column, only its high ranked people from the government?" Chad said as he looked at Hobbes for confirmation.

"Yes." Erica answered before Hobbes could respond. "Apparently my boss and partner from the FBI are involved and have been tracking me for weeks."

"Did you get affected by the light last night?" Sid asked out of nowhere and they all turned to look at him. "What? I was just wondering."

"No, we weren't." Erica answered as she gestured to herself and Hobbes. Chad shook his head slowly. "But Jack was." Erica continued as she looked at him.

"How did you know?" Jack asked with a frown.

"I saw you when I came out from a meeting with Paul and Chris." She answered slowly.

"And you weren't affected?" Chad asked as he frowned at her.

"No." She answered."When I came out everyone was already looking at the bottom of the ship. I tried to get you to wake up but nothing worked. So I went home." She continued as she glanced at Hobbes who was looking at her. She didn't mention anything about where he was. They didn't need to know that.

After Chad had told them about his meeting with Joshua on the ship and that the so called light, was actually Anna's way of controlling humans, he had to leave for an interview. Erica told him that they would come up with a new plan and then contact him. They needed to come up with a plan fast now that Anna was beginning to take over. And without Ryan or Lisa they didn't have anyone that could come and go at the ship. It would be too risky to let Joshua leave the ship. They needed him up there.

"So what do we do now?" Sid asked from where he was sitting on the bed. They all turned to look at Erica.

"We start over and come up with a new plan."

**AN: Thank you for the reviews. It was fun to know that you want me to continue (:**


	3. The Truth Comes Out

The sun had disappeared behind the grey clouds and the warm temperature had fallen a few degrees during the last few hours. It looked as if it would start raining any minute. Two hours had passed since their last meeting at the basement and Erica was currently driving through the busy streets of New York with Jack in the passenger seat. After they had discussed everything that had happened and what they were going to do next, Erica had agreed to take Jack to the Project Aires headquarter. She was going to tell Paul and Chris who Jack really was and that he was one of them, if they didn't already know that. Erica had no idea how much they actually knew about the Fifth Column.

As she parked her car next to a silver car, which she recognized as Paul's, she glanced over at Jack who was staring out the window. His warms breaths were creating mist to form at the inside of the window. But as soon as it came, it disappeared. His expression was troubled and his eyebrows were drawn together, creating a small frown above his eyes. But after everything he had been trough during the last few weeks it was just natural that he felt anxious and frustrated. She knew exactly how he felt, she felt the same.

"This is it." Erica said as she motioned for him to follow her down the stairwell and through the door. She pressed the elevator button and took a step back.

"How far down is it?" Jack asked as he looked at her with his soft eyes.

"About a mile." Erica answered as she stepped into the elevator.

Jack followed her in and stood next to her. Close to her. The elevator wasn't creating any of the loud growling noises they usually did. It was almost completely silent. All that could be heard were their breathing. Erica suddenly felt hot. Her cheeks became flushed and her breathing got a bit faster. Her heart rate spiked when she saw him turn his head and looked at her. She tried to look away but ended up meeting his eyes anyway. He gave her a worried look as he took her expression in.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit claustrophobic." She lied as the elevator dinged and she quickly stepped off. He looked suspiciously at her but apparently decided to drop it since he followed her without saying anything. Erica liked Jack, but as a good friend. Nothing more. But why did she just react like she did? And what about Hobbes? She took a deep breath to clear her head from all the distracting thoughts. She needed to focus.

They walked quickly down the long hallway that led to the center of the underground headquarter. She knew there were elevators going directly to the center but this way was less crowded. And she didn't feel like being around a lot of people at the moment. Even though this was a bit of a detour, she continued to walk through the hallway. There were doors on each side of the long, narrow corridor which made it feel like a cave with lots of different paths. The floor, the walls and the doors were all painted in a dull grey color. Erica had no idea what was behind those doors. She knew that Hobbes had a room to live in down here somewhere but she didn't know where exactly. He had mentioned something about a small room, almost like prison cell, with a hard bed and not much more. When Erica thought about him sitting there in his cell, all alone and Paul probably hadn't treated him as a guest, more as a prisoner, she felt a twinge in her chest. Kyle was dangerous and probably deserved a lifetime in jail, she couldn't really deny that, but he was more than everyone else saw. They only saw him as a fugitive. But underneath all that cockiness and arrogans, he was good. She knew he wasn't only the person he pretended to be.

Erica pulled the heavy metal door open and stopped to wait for Jack to walk through the doorframe. He slowly walked past her and his expression turned into a deep frown as he took it all in. The computers that were lined up on the desks, the big board with information and plans at the end of the room and his gaze stopped at the sight of the armed men outside the elevators. He didn't look nervous or afraid but he seemed a bit confused about the whole thing. It was a lot to take in. But his expression was curious, like when a child visits a new place or discovers something new.

"Back already?" said a calm, rich voice that she recognized.

Erica turned around to see Chris standing there. He was wearing the same brown suit he had yesterday evening when she'd been brought here. His expression was friendly as usual, but he looked tired. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he probably hadn't slept for a while. On the other hand, he was a FBI agent and there wasn't much time for sleeping when you were on a big case. You would stay up almost the whole night to go over information, search for some more information and facts about the thing you were working on. She knew how it was.

"Yeah, I left pretty sudden yesterday." She said slowly. "And I didn't really get a chance to talk to any of you about the Fifth Column."

"Well, I have a few minutes." Chris said with a small smile before he turned his gaze and looked at Jack. "I have to admit, I am a bit surprised to see _you_ here though."

"I would say the same about you if Erica hadn't told me about everything." Jack said.

"Yeah, she seems to trust you." Chris said. His expression was unreadable. "And if she does, then so do I." he continued as he put his hand out. "Chris Bolling."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Jack said and shook his hand.

"Now that you've made up, let's talk about the more important things." Erica said firmly as she nodded to a corner where they could talk a bit more privately. "We need to know if you have any plan how to stop Anna from destroying humanity?" She continued.

"No, we don't." Chris said as he looked at her.

"You're a group of high ranked government agent and you don't have a plan?" Jack said with a frown.

"Chris, you can't be serious?" Erica said.

"Look Erica, there is something you need to understand when it comes to Project Aires." Chris said calmly. "We didn't create this organization to put up obstacles to delay Anna's plan, we want to eliminate her, and in order to do that we need to do something big."

"Then why haven't you done anything?" Erica asked him.

"There is nothing we can do right now. We don't have enough information about the Visitors or Anna's plan." Chris answered with a small shrug.

"Maybe we can help you with that." Jack said slowly and looked at Erica for approval. After all, she was the leader of the Fifth Column now and he needed to follow her orders. She nodded slowly. "We have contacts on the ship and Sid can explain everything we know about the Visitors to you." He continued.

"Who the hell is Sid?" Chris asked with a frown. They had been tracking Erica for a while but the name Sid had never been mentioned.

"Sidney Miller, an evolutionary biologist." Erica answered. "And he is also a member in the Fifth Column here in New York." She continued with a small nod.

"I suppose he is the one that was handling the virus you stole and gave to a number of persons?" Chris asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah." Erica answered nonchalantly.

"How did you know that was us?" Jack asked confused.

"The security guard said he heard a woman call the name Hobbes, and he recognized your voice from the news." Chris answered with a nod to Jack.

"You know about Hobbes too?" Jack asked. He couldn't believe that they knew that Kyle Hobbes, their most wanted man, were working with the Fifth Column and they didn't do anything about it.

"Kyle Hobbes is working here at the Project Aires too." Chris said. "We managed to buy his loyalty a few months ago and we got him to work for us."

"In change for money, right?" Erica answered with a tiny smile. She knew his conditions.

"Yes." Chris answered shortly. "We needed him and that was the only thing we could do." He continued with a shrug.

"What did you need him for? What was his mission?" Jack answered hesitantly.

"We needed him to infiltrate the Fifth Column to find out more about the people involved in New York and what your plans were." He answered firmly. The smile fell from Erica's lips in a second. Jack looked confused, but there was a bit of anger evident in his eyes.

"So he has just been pretending to be a Fifth Column to provide you with information?" Jack asked although he already knew the answer.

"Yes. But he hasn't really given us anything useful, just short text messages saying what you were planning on doing so that we wouldn't dig any deeper into it." Chris said. "We know that you stopped one of the Concordia sights for example. Hobbes told us, and that's why you are not behind bars right now." He continued as he looked at the two of them.

"I can't believe this." Jack said and shook his head. He couldn't believe that Hobbes had been doing this behind their back and they never suspected a thing. He worked for anyone, as long as he got cash it didn't matter who it was or what they wanted him to do. But that was who he was. "Did he tell you about us too?" He continued.

"No. We found out about you two before we even sent him out in the field to find you." Chris answered sincerely. "Hobbes hasn't mentioned anything about the Fifth Column's contacts around the world, what you were doing in Asia or anything about his own or your personal lives." He said as he glanced at Erica. "We figured those things out on our own."

Erica looked away to avoid the look Chris gave her. She knew what he meant when he said that Hobbes didn't tell them about their personal lives. She was a part of his personal life and he was a part of hers. If they had been tracking her she was sure that they had put up cameras around and inside her house, which meant they knew she had been sleeping with Hobbes. They probably knew everything about what happened with Tyler too. She didn't have anything to herself anymore. Except the things she hadn't told anyone. And Kyle knew. He knew that they had been tracking her, spying on her, and he hadn't told her anything about it. He had only been pretending to be with them, and she had believed him because it all seemed so real. The time when her car flipped while she fought with Malik and got hurt, she thought her cared. When he stopped her from running to the shuttle that had been loaded with the missing people she thought he cared. When she was sick last night she thought he cared. But it was all an act.

"I need to take this." Chris said as his phone beeped loudly. "Erica, just go on with the Fifth Column like you did before. If you need anything contact me or Paul." Chris said quickly before he turned and walked towards the elevators.

"So what do we do now?" Jack asked as he looked at her.

"We do what he said." Erica answered and started to walk towards the hallway they came from. "We continue with the Fifth Column. But for now we need to lay low for a few days." She continued as they walked out.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Anna walked down the familiar hallway to the medical center where Joshua and the rest of the medical crew usually were. She knew that Joshua spent almost all of his time down here because she told him to. And Joshua was loyal. He always followed her orders when she gave them to him. He was one of her most trusted men, and that was the reason why she had assigned him to be the physician in charge of the whole medical crew on board the ship. He knew how everything worked and he was good at what he did. He never made mistakes or disobeyed her orders. He was a true Visitor.

When she walked through the doorframe she wasn't surprised at all to fins Joshua standing there in the middle of the room, just as she thought he would. He was currently going through some information and results on one of the high tech computers they had.

"Joshua." Anna said in a light voice as she walked towards him. He turned around at her voice.

"Anna" He said with a nod.

"How is Lisa doing?" Anna asked referring to the clone she'd made a few days ago and then used to mate with Tyler last night.

"So far everything is going as planned." Joshua answered slowly. "She is resting like she should and there haven't been any problems so far." He continued as he pulled up a video with a small hand movement. The video showed "Lisa" lying on a big white bed. She was indeed resting, just as Joshua told her.

"Good. I need you to keep monitoring her carefully." Anna said sternly, almost threatening, not that he wasn't used to that tone. "She is an important part of the evolution of our species and nothing can go wrong."

"I will do my best." He said in a soft voice. "But I can't promise you that this will work exactly the way we expected it to."

"What do you mean it might not work?" Anna asked quickly.

"We have never put these big amounts of human DNA inside one of our kind." Joshua explained calmly but his voice was serious. "This is all new to me and out technology, which means there are risks." He continued as he looked into Anna's questioning eyes. They were cold and distant. They didn't have any traces of emotions. Anna had no soul.

"Then you will monitor her as closely as you can to make sure none of those risks can happen." Anna demanded.

"Of course, my queen." Joshua said with a nod. Even though he hated calling her that, he knew he had to.

"I trust you Joshua." Anna said calmly, yet firmly. "I have an announcement to make this afternoon." This definitely caught his interest. He was a Fifth Column after all.

"May I ask what kind of announcement?" He asked softly. Maybe she would tell him, maybe not. He couldn't read her at all.

"The humans are upset about what happened to them yesterday and I need to fix that." Anna said slowly. "I still need the trust of humanity."

"How will you do that?" Joshua asked hesitantly. He had to be careful, Anna couldn't suspect anything. If she did, he would lose his place as one of her closest men.

"I will tell them the truth about the bliss." Anna said with a smile as she turned around and walked towards the door. Her smile was as fake as his loyalty to his species was.

As soon as Anna left the room and he was sure that no one saw him, Joshua went back to what he was really doing before she arrived. He was trying to figure out a way to destroy the human DNA inside of the clone. But he had to find a way to make it seemed as the clone rejected the DNA, which was a hard thing to do. But he was determined to find a way. Anna couldn't get a thousand new, better soldiers. That would be the end for the humanity and Earth.

Joshua wondered where the real Lisa was and what she was doing at the moment. He knew she was down on the ground, but what her plan to do down there was a mystery to him. Since she still was a Fifth Column, or at least worked with them, she was probably on her way to see Erica. If she was, she might tell Erica about Tyler's death. Even though Joshua was a V, he felt incredibly bad when he thought about how Erica would react. He hadn't known her for a little more than a month, but he felt as if he'd known her for years. And he knew that when she would find out her only child was dead, it would break her. It would hurt a lot of people that Erica knew.

Joshua just hoped that Lisa would tell her that there was a way to bring Tyler back if Anna was eliminated and Lisa became queen.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

The water splashed under his shoes as he walked through one of the many empty alleys in the streets of New York where it had started to rain a little. The air was humid and warm, as if it would begin to thunder any second. Hobbes liked both the rainstorms and thunderstorms since he was born in the United Kingdom, where it rained almost every day. He liked to just watch the lightning as it made the whole sky shine.

After his parents had died he often sat out on the big balcony in his childhood home in Somerset, a county in South West England, and just stared at the sky and the horizon. He knew what he wanted to do back then. He wanted to get away from the life he had in England. The unexpected loss of his parents had affected him hard and he was just seventeen years old and already at the breaking point. The social services had put him and Sarah in the custody of their aunt and uncle. She was a kind and loving woman and her husband was a good man, but they weren't his parents. No one could replace them. He loved his aunt and uncle, but he couldn't wait until the day he turned eighteen and he could do whatever he wanted. And he already knew what he was going to do. He joined the army to earn some money so that he could support himself and his sister as they moved back to their old house at the coast of Somerset.

He stayed in the British army for a few years where he trained hard both in the field and at the base. The army training was tough and it took a lot out of him, but at the age of 24 he was already a weapons expert who knew both how to make advanced explosive devises and fly a lot of different air planes and helicopters. He became the best SAS soldiers in Britain with so much experience at his age. A year after that, he was the youngest soldier in Europe to ever fly a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. At that moment, he was really happy for the first time since his parents had died.

When Hobbes turned 26 he decided to continue with his plan to get away from his life in Britain and get a fresh start from everything that had happened to him and his family. He used the money he'd gotten from the army and moved to a small apartment outside New York with Sarah, just as he'd promised her when she was just a child. His sister was all he had left and he needed to take care of her until she got her life in check. He helped her find a real job in the city so that she could earn some money for herself. They lived together for a few years until she bought her own apartment that she and her boyfriend shared. Everything was going well. Until that rainy night when she was on her way home from work and a car came sliding down the highway. The rain had made the roads slippery and apparently the driver had lost control and flipped over. The cars collided front to front. There was no way Sarah would have survived.

A loud thunderclap brought him back from his thoughts and he looked up. The clouds that now filled the sky were dark and almost threatening. Maybe he shouldn't have taken such a long walk through the alleys today. But he liked it. The alleys were a part of New York that wasn't crowded with stressed people or the typical yellow cabs that filled every street during the day and night. He never liked them. He didn't really know why, maybe because he'd read an article Sarah had showed him about taxi drivers kidnapping women at night when the stepped into the cab. She had been upset about it. He didn't have any problems to take the cab by himself, since he was a trained soldier, but he just preferred walking through the dark alleys. He didn't need a cab to get to where he wanted to go. A smile formed on his lips as he thought back to one night when Erica had persuaded him that they'd take a cab from the basement to her place instead of the subway and a long walk through her neighborhood.

"_Kyle come on, let's take a cab instead." Erica said as they walked from the alley near the basement. They'd agreed to go to her place for a while after a long day. Or well, they hadn't really agreed on anything. They just assumed that they would go to her place. Again. _

"_The subway is fine." He said with a small grin. He liked to tease her. _

"_A cab is faster." She said quickly. "Don't you want to get home as quickly as we can?" She whispered seductively as she hooked her arm around his elbow. He knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to seduce him to get her way. _

"_I can wait." He answered with a shrug. He had to stop himself from smirking when he saw the annoyed look on her face. _

"_But it's cold and it's raining and I am freezing." She complained as he just kept walking. _

"_It's not raining Erica." He said with a laugh. She was acting a bit like a kid who was tired from walking around all day. Even though she was trying to be annoyed with him she had to smile when he laughed. She loved to hear him laugh. He didn't do it often, but when he did, it always made her smile. _

"_Please just take a cab with me. I am tired and I don't want to wait for the subway." Erica said with a sigh as she stopped to look at him. "Or I will take a cab and meet you at the house." She continued and looked him in the eye. _

"_Fine" He said as he looked at her pleading eyes. He didn't want to take a cab and listen to some annoying driver talking about the Yankees and their new players. But he wouldn't let her take a cab on her own, especially at this time of the night. Even though she was a trained agent and she could take care of herself, he didn't want to let her go. "Let's go find a ride then." He said with a sigh and started walking. _

Kyle scoffed to himself as he thought about how easy she had persuaded him into doing what she wanted. Erica was as stubborn as a kid even though she was 38 years old and had her own kid. He knew she was 38 years old because he'd read it when he looked through her medical files this morning. Tyler had just turned eighteen which meant she was only nineteen when she got pregnant with Tyler. She had only been nineteen when she'd gotten extremely sick and needed to take medication that could have left permanent damage to her body. He didn't know if it had. He never got to that part of the document before Erica came into the room and distracted him.

Suddenly he was brought back from his thoughts as the rain began to pour down heavily from the dark sky. In the corner of his eye he saw a flash of lightning in the distance. New York was a place where you never had to worry about being struck by lightning when you're walking on the streets. The reason for that were the high skyscrapers that covered the whole Manhattan. They all had lightning rods on the top which made the electricity go straight down and into the ground. One of the reasons he liked New York was that he could walk around in a thunderstorm without worrying about anything. He could just walk. And he loved it.

His dark hair was clinging to his skin as the water poured down on him where he stood on the dock, looking at the orange ferry that went between Staten Island and Manhattan. The Staten Island ferry. This was the place where Kyle had met Paul Kendrick the first time. He had picked the place himself when Paul had called him and said that he had a mission for him, just like today. He ran a hand through his soaked hair and then he put his cold hands in the pockets of his thick jacket and walked on board the ferry. Even though the air wasn't cold, the rain was pretty cold. And it would be even colder out on the open where the wind was a bit stronger. But Paul had told him this was important and he didn't really have that much of a choice.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

_A few hours earlier_

Lisa stood in the middle of the FBI office and waited for the woman she'd talked to just a moment ago, would return. The room was filled with desks and boards. There were a few smaller offices that probably belonged to the higher ranked agents in the bureau. She knew that Erica had one of them but she couldn't remember which one it was. The phone on the desk next to her rang out loudly but a young man quickly grabbed it before it even had time to ring a second time. There were people talking everywhere, phones ringing at the same time and the click of letters being typed on a keyboard was stressing her out. She couldn't believe that the people here could work like this every day.

The young brunette who had went to find Paul Kendrick for her returned to Lisa and told her to go to his office as she pointed to the office where the blinds were closed. Lisa thanked her and slowly made her way over and knocked on the class. At first she didn't hear anything but then she heard a faint _come in_, and so she did. She closed the door behind her and turned to find Paul looking at her with a surprised, yet confused face.

"Lisa?" He asked both as a question to why she was here and to make sure that was the name he remembered.

"Mr. Kendrick. I'm sorry to come here so unexpected but there is something that you need to know." Lisa said as she swallowed hard. This was harder than she thought and she hadn't even come to the hard part yet. "It's about Erica Evans." This definitely caught his attention.

"Go on." He said with a frown.

"I didn't know who else to go to or what to do but I know you have worked with Erica for a long time." Lisa said as she took a shaky breath. "And that is why I came to you." She continued as she looked into his eyes. They were filled with worry and confusion.

"Came to me about what?" He asked firmly. Paul didn't like this. Something had happened and he didn't know what.

"Tyler is dead." She answered shortly. A lonely tear made its way down her cheek but she quickly wiped it away. "Erica doesn't know and I can't tell her."

"How did this happen?" He asked himself more than her. She could see the sadness on his face as he looked away from her and stood up. He walked over to the window and stared at the city. Then he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"One of my people murdered him last night aboard my ship." Lisa answered. She saw him flinch slightly as she said the word murdered. Usually he probably didn't have any problems with dealing with murders and crimes, but this wasn't an ordinary case. This was his friend's son. Her only child had been murdered and he was the one who had to tell her.

"What do you mean one of your people? Why would they kill Tyler?" Paul asked with a frown. He looked angry, but mostly confused.

"My mother is not who she says she is." Lisa told him quietly. She knew that her mother still had a few of her people working inside the FBI so she needed to be careful. If they found out that she told the head of FBI the truth about her mother, she'd be dead. "And the reason she is here is not what you think." She continued firmly as she looked him in the eye.

"What do you mean?" Paul asked suspiciously. He knew what she meant since he was working with the Project Aires. But he couldn't tell her that until he was absolutely sure that she was a Fifth Column. He'd seen her with Erica and the rest of the members when he and Chris had been tracking her. They weren't completely sure that she was a member, but they had their suspicions.

"I can't tell you everything. Not here. My mother has contacts that are working for you. No one can know about this." She said firmly. "I need to leave before anyone suspects anything." She continued as she took a few steps towards the door before she stopped and turned to look at him. Her eyes were glassy with tears. "Just make sure you tell Erica about Tyler." She said with a broken voice.

Paul nodded slowly as he watched her walk out through the door and continue towards the exit. A few of his agents looked strangely at her while she left. Maybe some of them worked for Anna. Lisa had mentioned that there were moles inside this office, but he had no idea who it could be. He let out a deep sigh as he sat down in his chair. Now he had some huge problems to deal with. Anna had moles in his office and Lisa had things she wanted to tell him. But then there was Erica. He needed to tell his coworker, and friend, that her son was dead and that he didn't know who did it.

Paul pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed in the numbers. He didn't like making this phone call, but he didn't have a choice right now. The phone rang a few times before a deep voice answered him.

"Hobbes. We need to talk." Paul said.

"Look, I already gave you the information you needed. There is nothi-" Hobbes answered before Paul interrupted him.

"It's about Erica." He said quickly. There was a silence before Hobbes answered him again.

"What happened?" He asked. There was a bit of worry evident in his voice.

"Anna's daughter was just here." He answered slowly as he sighed. The next thing he had to tell him was making him sick. He didn't want to say it out loud, because that made it real. But he had to. "Erica's son is dead."

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

_Back in regular time _

Hobbes walked around on the deck aboard the ferry that was currently on its way to Staten Island. Kendrick had told him he would be on the top of the orange ferry with this number on it. The wind was a lot colder up here, especially when they were out on the open water, and the rain was still pouring down. But he had to meet Paul to find out what had happened to Tyler on that ship. He spotted him in the corner where he was leaning against the railing on the boat. He didn't have his usual FBI jacket on, just a regular black rain coat.

"What happened to Tyler?" Hobbes demanded before Paul had even registered that he was here. He turned around and looked at him.

"I don't know. All Lisa told me was that he was dead and that somebody on the ship did it. I don't know how or why." Paul answered loudly, but it was still hard to hear what he said between the pouring rain and the strong wind.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Hobbes yelled through the heavy rain. He was mad. Not specifically at Kendrick, but at everything. Nothing they did worked. Anna still managed to win over them.

"Lisa wouldn't tell me more than that!" Kendrick answered loudly as he wiped the water from his face. He didn't have the answers Hobbes wanted.

"Does Erica know?" Hobbes asked him as he looked out on the water.

"No. I don't think so." Paul answered.

"So when are you planning on telling her?" Hobbes asked as he turned to look at Paul again. "Or are you going to lie to her for weeks just like you and your bloody friend did about the Aires organization?" He continued with anger in his voice. Erica deserved to know, it was her _son_.

"I am going to see her when we get back to Manhattan." Paul answered coldly as he gave Hobbes a threatening look. "She shouldn't be alone tonight, maybe you can comfort her like you've done a few times during the weeks you've worked for us." He said before he could stop himself. Once he realized what he'd just said Hobbes strong fist met his cheekbone and he staggered backwards a few steps.

"Sorry about that. My fist slipped." Hobbes said coldly as he rubbed his knuckles that were quickly getting red and sore. "I don't care what you say about me, but don't bring her into it." He continued as she turned and walked away, leaving a stunned Paul Kendrick behind. He knew that Paul probably suspected something after what he'd just done. There was no way to hide it after this. Hobbes had real feelings for Erica Evans.

**AN: Sorry about the long wait for an update, I hurt my shoulder so it was a bit hard to write for a while. **

**But thank you so much everyone for the reviews and thank you for reading this fic :)**


	4. Memories

**AN: Sorry about the wait, but I've been pretty busy. Went to a Take That/ Robbie Williams concert in Copenhagen a few days ago so... **

**Anyway here is chapter four, but hope you like it :) **

Erica sat on the kitchen floor with her back against the countertop and stared at the cabinet door in front of her. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there. It felt like a long time. Everything feels slow when you are suffering. The room was dark except for some streetlights that were shining through the kitchen window and the house was cold. The heating system was probably broken or turned off. But she didn't care about the cold. She didn't care about the dark or that the door was unlocked. She didn't care if Anna did something to the world. She didn't care about the Fifth Column or her friends anymore. She didn't care about _him_. Her son was dead. Just like Joe. Now she had nothing left. Her family was completely gone.

She felt the goose bumps begin to form on her pale skin. Her jacket wasn't really providing any protection from the cold. But it wasn't really designed to make you feel warm, just some minor defense from the wind and light rain. She slowly pulled the front of her jacket tighter against her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. Her small frame was shivering slightly as she stayed on the floor. It was getting colder but she had no intention of getting up anytime soon. She couldn't. Wherever she looked, she was reminded about Tyler. The table where they used to share breakfast every morning until the Vs arrived, the couch where they'd watched TV at night and the kitchen she had tried to learn him to cook a simple dinner. It had ended in complete disaster and the food tasted horrible, but they had enjoyed it. Her lips formed a tiny smile as she back to that night.

"_And now add some black pepper and a piece of garlic." Erica said from where she was sitting at the kitchen table. She smiled as she watched her sixteen year old son cook their dinner. _

"_Add it where?" Tyler asked as he looked at the different pans on the stove. He had told her that he didn't want any help and that he was going to do this all by himself. She knew he just didn't want to admit that he couldn't, so she went with it. _

"_In the stew Tyler." She answered as she watched him take the spices from the cabinet. He looked a bit confused at first but then he found the right one and sprinkled some into the stew. _

"_I think it's done." He said a while later as he put the beef stew onto three plates and sat them on the table. _

"_I'm home" A voice said as they heard the front door open and then shut. _

"_Hi dad!" Tyler said with a smile as he sat down next to his mom at the dinner table. "I cooked." He continued with a grin as his father walked into the kitchen. _

"_Sixteen years old and finally you've made your own food. I'm impressed." Joe teased as he gave Erica a quick kiss on the lips before he sat down. _

"_He didn't let me help at all." Erica said with a smile._

"_Yeah well..." Tyler said as a small blush spread across his cheeks. "Let's just eat." _

_They all took a few bites from their plates and brought the brown beef stew to their mouths. None of them said anything; they just chewed in silence until Erica opened her mouth._

"_This is horrible." She said with a laugh as she looked at them. _

"_You're right mom, this is really bad."Tyler said lightly as he grabbed his glass of water to get the taste out of his mouth._

"_I think it's pretty good." Joe said honestly as he took another bite. They just looked at him like he was crazy and then they laughed. They were real family._

Tears flooded her eyes at the memory of that night and she cried for the first time since Paul Kendrick had told her what happened. He'd tried to comfort her but she didn't want him there, she didn't want anyone there. So she had just told him to get out and he did. She knew he desperately wanted to be there for her, since he actually was her friend and not just her boss, but she just couldn't. She just wanted to be alone. So he left. And here she was, all alone when her emotional barrier broke and her heart was being squeezed so hard inside her chest that she thought she'd die. The warm, salty tears ran down her cheeks in abundance and made her eyes burn, which only increased her sobbing. Her head was starting to hurt from dehydration. But she couldn't stop. It just wasn't possible.

Just as she was about to cough before her throat was completely blocked, she heard the door open. It squeaked as the person slowly closed it again and she heard the lock on the door being turned. The door was locked. Why would someone break into a house and then lock it? Her breathing caught in her throat as she heard the footsteps of her intruder slowly starting to walk towards the living room. The footsteps were quite heavy, indicating that it was a man. She heard him turn and walk past the dinner table and a few steps towards the countertop before he stopped. Her heart was beating wildly inside her chest. The man was standing on the other side of the countertop, which she was currently sitting with her back pressed tightly against. She could hear his breathing. There was something familiar with it but she couldn't figure out what. But when the man let out a small sigh, she knew. Kyle was here.

Erica slowly and quietly let out the breath she had been holding and closed her eyes. Her heart rate went down a bit and her body relaxed slightly. A part of her wanted nothing more than to tell him to leave but the other part of her wanted him to stay. Apparently he had heard her when she started to breathe again, because he slowly walked around the countertop. She kept her eyes closed as she felt him crouch beside her and let out a sigh.

He was not good at this. He had no idea how to comfort a mother who had lost her only child. He knew that there was nothing that helped, no way to comfort her. But he did the only thing he could. He sat down beside her and pulled her cold, shaking body tight against his. And he held her there. She wasn't crying now, but the redness around her eyes indicated that she had been crying a lot. Not that he had expected something else. Kyle knew how she felt. She had just lost the last family she had and he knew exactly how that felt. He wished that he could just take away all of her pain. But he couldn't.

So instead, he sat on the floor with his back pressed against the countertop and his arm around Erica's shoulders as she leaned her head against his chest. He didn't say anything as he grabbed her small, cold hand in his and slowly rubbed it with his thumb. Her pale skin was soft even though it was cold and still had a few small scars from when she had been out in the field. He slowly traced the outline of every scar before he took her hand in his again and squeezed it. Just to let her know that he was there for her. And to his surprise she gave his hand a weak squeeze. Then she slowly shifted her body so that she was lying on her side, with her head in his lap. He shifted slightly to a more comfortable position and then brought his hand to her head and stared stroking her hair softly. "I'm here Erica."

And at that the emotional walls she had put up around her broke and she started crying heavily, which soon turned into sobbing. Her whole body started to shake as she tried to breathe at the same time. He quickly pulled her up to a sitting position and wrapped both of his arms around her trembling body. Her fingers clutched the front of his thick jacket as if it was a life vest and she was sinking. She buried her head in the crook of his neck as he slowly ran his strong hands up and down her back. Even though she still had her leather jacket on, he could feel how cold she was. The skin of her face that was pressed against his neck, felt like ice. He hugged her closer to his chest in a way to provide heat from his body. The thick jacket he was wearing kept him warm and dry even during the worst weather conditions, which was important when he lived as a fugitive out on the streets. And currently it was providing warmth to the woman he was falling in love with more and more for every day that went by.

Kyle didn't know how long they had been sitting there, him stroking her back and holding her in his lap until her cries subsided and she fell into a deep sleep. Her small fists were still gripping his jacket tightly. Her breathing had turned shallow and her body was a bit more relaxed than before. Even though her eyes were closed he could see that they were red and swollen and so were her cheeks. The salty tears had formed glowing streaks on her face. They were barely visible but the dim light shining from the street, made them noticeable. He brought his thumb to her cheek and gently wiped away the last remnants of tears under her eyes. She shifted her head slightly but didn't wake up. But she couldn't sleep like this. He brought one of his arms under her knees and the other one under her neck, and then he slowly stood up. It wasn't hard. She was a featherweight in his strong arms as he walked towards her bedroom.

Kyle gently laid her down on the soft bed and switched the bedside lamp on. He removed her shoes and jacket before he pulled the covers over her body. She looked peaceful as she slept. If you didn't notice the redness around her eyes and the tear stains on her face, she looked just as she usually did. Like she was okay, but she wasn't. Not anywhere near okay. He felt hopeless. He didn't know what to do. Should he stay and comfort her when she woke up or should he leave so that she would get some privacy? He quickly pushed that thought out of his head. There was no way he would leave her in this moment. She was emotionally broken and needed help. There were a lot of people that could be here instead, and probably do a better job of comforting, but he was the only one that understood the amount of pain she was in.

He sat on the bed next to her sleeping body for a little while and just watched her sleep. One of his hands was stroking her face whilst the other one was holding hers. Her skin was still cold. She would get sick if she didn't get warm soon. Not really sick, but at least a bit of a cold. And right now, that was something she definitely did not need. He reluctantly stood up and walked to the washroom to try and fix the heating system, if he could find out what was wrong with it of course. And he did.

When he came back to the bedroom Erica had turned around and was lying on her side with her back against him. Kyle hesitated for few seconds before he slowly stripped down to his boxers and his shirt. He turned the bedside lamp off before he lay down on the other side of the bed. The sheets felt cool against his warm body as he closed his eyes and just breathed. This day had been like hell. Nothing had been good. He wondered what Paul Kendrick would do next. He had hit him. He had hit one of the leaders of the Project Aires. The leader of the FBI in New York. The man who let him walk around on the streets even though he should be in jail. Nothing good could come out of that. He was brought back from his thoughts as the cover moved. He opened his eyes and looked over at Erica, who was now burying her head deep into the pillow he was using. He couldn't resist staying away anymore so he put his arm around her waist and gently pulled her closer to his body. He was careful not to wake her as he pulled the cover over their bodies and wrapped his arms around her small frame. Even in her sleep her head instantly went to the crook of his neck and a small grin spread on his face. Everything would be alright. And then he slept.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

_You feel of peace._

_Sense only peace._

_Only my bliss can comfort you._

_Only my bliss can save you._

_Feel my bliss._

_You sense only peace._

_Feel only comfort._

Jack awoke with a sharp intake of air as his eyes flew open and he blinked in confusion before recognizing the surroundings of the small room in the back of the church. He wasn't outside in the dark. There weren't any soft voices in the air. There wasn't a light shining down on him. He slowly relaxed his body that had become rigid as he woke up from his nightmare and let out the breath he hadn't realized that he had been holding.

It was not a regular nightmare. What he had been dreaming of, was the memory of the night when he got blissed. It all came back to him at once. He remembered walking through a crowd of people on his way towards the church. It was dark and the air was chilly. He remembered hearing the soft voice from the sky. He remembered people shouting and that he stopped and turned around to see what was happening. And he remembered seeing the bright light shining down from the bottom of the ship forcing him to squint. _You sense only peace. Feel only comfort_. Those were the last words he heard. And the next morning he woke up in the church. Everything in between was gone. No matter how hard he tried to remember, he couldn't.

As he lay on the bed he wondered what was really going to happen next. During the time that the Visitors had been here, all kinds of horrible events had happened. And he had been there from the beginning along with Erica. They two of them were the only two alive from that warehouse meeting when they first met Georgie and found out that the Vs weren't who they said they were. At first he actually doubted the Canadian man who cut people's skin open, looking for skull bone. But the more Georgie told them about the Visitors that night, the more he started to actually believe in what he said. And when Dale and the others came, Georgie's words were confirmed.

"_I want you to confirm that you see skull bone." The man told them as he looked at them. A few people gathered around the man on the chair to look at the small, formed as a V, behind his left ear. Jack was one of them._

"_Take a good look at it." The man, named Georgie, told them. "It's important." He continued as he looked around. His gaze fixed on a blond woman with blue eyes. "You're next." He said firmly as he pointed at her. _

_Jack looked at the woman from where he stood. He could see traces of fear in her expression, but she seemed calm compared to some of the people in the crowd. She looked like she was about to say something, but she just took a breath and looked Georgie in the eye. _

He winced at the memory of watching them make a small incision in her skin and looked for skull bone. She had looked pretty calm during the injection of anesthesia, which even he thought was a bit painful. They did not find any traces of something unusual on either of them, or anyone else. Then the intruders had begun to appear from every direction and began killing the people from the meeting. Wherever he looked he saw someone fall to the ground but before he had time to run away and out of there, he spotted something in the corner of the room. The blond woman, named Erica, was sitting on top of one of the men that had tried to kill them. She was clutching an iron rod and was about to drive it into his chest but before she could, Jack ran over to her and half dragged her out of there and onto the roof.

"_I don't know who to trust anymore." Erica had told him as they sat out on the roof, looking at the city. They could see the huge ship hovering above the city. "I can't get the image of Dale lying there out of my head." She continued as her voice cracked. He had grabbed her hand in a way to comfort her, even though he barely knew her. _

"_What do we do now?" He asked as he looked up._

"_We help build a resistance." Erica said slowly. "We recruit. Bring more into the fold." She continued and then paused. He nodded slowly. "We have to be careful."_

"_We'll be careful." He said firmly as he looked at the ship in the distance. "And we have to fight."_

"_We'll fight. They have a big head start." Erica said determinately. "They're arming themselves with the most powerful weapon out there." _

"_Yeah, and what's that?" Jack asked as he looked at her. She didn't answer him. "Erica what weapon?" He asked again, a little more urgently than before._

"_Devotion." She said as she looked at him._

Jack remembered that night as if was yesterday. That was the night he became a member in the Fifth Column, even though he did not know that during that time. It was not until he met Ryan that he found out about the resistance group.

Even though Jack wanted to get rid of Anna and wished that the Visitors had never arrived, he knew that if they had not arrived he would probably never have met Erica. Their paths would never cross. She was a FBI agent and he was a priest. They did not have a lot in common except for the face that they were both member in the Fifth Column. Erica was even the leader now. Every member around the world listened to her. She was doing a good job, but Anna was strong. All of their plans failed.

Two days had passed since their attempt to eliminate Anna at the warehouse. Erica had ordered the Fifth Column to lay low until they knew more about Anna's next move so that they could make their own. Jack had not heard from Sid or Chad since the meeting in the basement. He had seen Chad on the news a few times but that was it. He had called Erica yesterday afternoon to ask her if she was okay after their meeting with Chris earlier. They had found out about Hobbes betrayal and Jack knew that unlike him, Erica had trusted Hobbes. She was the one who recruited him and forced him to stay saying that they needed him, and she had been right. Without Hobbes they would not have accomplished the things they had. Erica had also been the only one to trust him from the beginning. Jack never imagined the day that he would trust a fugitive; he was a priest after all. But the Visitors arrival had brought the soldier inside him back to the surface. And Hobbes had become one of the people he trusted the most during this time. But now he didn't know what to do. And that was why he talked to Erica too. He knew how she felt for Hobbes. He had seen the way she was acting around him and it was different from how it was before. And the night when Hobbes had been shot, Jack had seen the way _he_ looked at her.

Jack was not jealous. Erica was a friend. She was the person he trusted the most. He didn't have anyone else to turn to if something happened or if he needed to talk to someone. Father Travis let him sleep in the church, but that was it. Sure, he could turn to God, but it was not the same anymore. The sky was filled with hundreds of giant ships.

Jack opened his eyes again and slowly got out of the bed and towards the small kitchen area. He had installed a stove and a tiny refrigerator when he lived here. There was still some bread and a few pieces of ham that he ate as breakfast before he took a shower and got ready to go out. He did not have any plans for today but he wanted to visit Sid at his lab to see if he had something new to tell him. Sid did not really do anything but sit in that lab all day, so he could use a visitor. _A human visitor_. Maybe he would go and see Chad later too, since he might have heard something from Anna. Jack knew he was a bit of an information collector, but he wanted to know what was going on at all times so that they did not miss a single thing that happened involving the Visitors. He picked up his phone and dialed Sid's number.

"_Hello." Sid said as he answered after a few seconds._

"Hey Sid, its Jack." He said as he pressed the phone between his ear and shoulder as he tried to put his jacket on. "Everything okay with you?"

"_Yeah everything is fine here. A bit busy with a few tests but other than that, it's pretty slow on this end." _

"What kind of tests?" Jack asked as he walked out through the church and out the door.

"_Come here and I'll show you. It's easier than explaining over the phone."_

"I am already on my way actually." Jack said as he walked towards the bus station.

"_Good. I'll see you soon then."_

"Yeah, I will be there in about fifteen minutes." Jack said and shut his phone.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Anna stood at the massive windows of her ship, staring at the big city below her. The sky was filled with grey clouds and it would probably rain today. Yesterday the weather had been bad. It had rained and the wind had been strong. And it looked like it would not be much better today. Anna would have made her announcement to the people yesterday, but the rain forced her to wait. But she was done waiting. Today she was going to inform the humans that her bliss was a way of helping them. It strengthened their immune system. That was what she had planned to tell them. They would believe it. The humans had believed everything she had said so far, so they would almost certainly believe this. Everything she had done during the time her people had been here, the medical centers, red rain, blue energy and the live aboard program had earned her the human's trust. They trusted her. They had faith in her. They would believe her when she told them about the bliss.

But she knew that it was a big risk to take. There were people out there that knew what her purpose for humanity and Earth really was. The Fifth Column. That global organization was her biggest threat. There were not just humans involved, but also people of her own kind that had betrayed her. And there was no way for her to truly stop them. Anna could not locate every single member since they were scattered in different cities all over the planet. When it came to the Fifth Column her priority was to locate the people involved in New York. They were the ones who had caused the most damage. The frozen soldier eggs, Concordia, the attempted murder on Marcus and all of the other things the Fifth Column had done had happened here in New York. If she could find the group of members here, she would be able to stop the Fifth Column once and for all.

"My queen." A familiar voice said and she was brought back from her thoughts. Anna turned around and was not surprised at all to find Marcus standing there in his usual black suit. "Thomas needs to know if he should prepare the signal and the screen for your announcement." Marcus said slowly.

"Tell him to have everything ready in two hours. I need to be on screen before the weather gets worse." Anna said with a small nod.

"How are the humans handling the fact that they have not heard from you?" Marcus asked.

"The humans are very…upset." Anna said as she looked at him.

"What are you going to tell them about the bliss?" Marcus asked her curiously.

"I will tell them that receiving my bliss is a way to strengthen their immune system." Anna answered calmly. "The humans have been very impressed by our medical knowledge and technology, not to mention the medical centers we opened around the cities."

"Are you sure that they will believe you?" He asked a bit suspiciously. "From what I heard this morning when Chad Decker talked about the event, it seemed like people had been affected in different ways afterwards."

"What do you mean?" Anna asked firmly.

"Apparently everyone that got blissed suffered from memory loss. They do not remember receiving the bliss, only the light from our ship and Amy's voice." Marcus told her with a small frown.

"Were there any other symptoms?" Anna asked him quickly.

"A few people are still unconscious and some have been admitted to the hospital for testing but the rest is mostly shocked from the experience." Marcus answered.

"Good. Their hospitals will not find anything wrong with them." Anna said as she turned around and stared out the giant windows.

This was going exactly as she had planned. The humans did not remember what had happened to them; neither did they know what had happened. There was no way for them to find any traces from her bliss. It just affected the persons mind. Not the body. It did not matter if it were a human or one of her own kind.

"Did you speak to Joshua earlier?" Anna asked as she continued to watch the city. She knew Marcus always walked through the ship to see if everything was going as it was supposed to.

"Yes." Marcus answered calmly. "He wanted me to inform you that Lisa's clone is doing fine. There have not been any problems so far." He continued with a nod.

"And how is Amy doing?" She asked as she turned around to look at him again.

"She is still sleeping." Marcus answered. "She is strong, but the bliss took a lot out of her."

"But she is doing okay?" Anna asked with a frown. There was a tiny glimpse of concern evident in her eyes.

"She is fine." Marcus answered calmly.

"Good. I need to get ready. Go and make sure Thomas has everything ready for me." Anna said as she turned around towards the windows again.

"Of course."

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Kyle slowly opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the dim light in Erica's bedroom. The light from the full moon outside was pouring in through the half closed curtains on the window. Erica was still spooned against him, with her arm draped across his torso and her legs tangled with his. They were still wearing clothes, but when Erica shifted her body slightly he could feel her knee pressing into his groin, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. He wondered how that had not got his attention, even if he was asleep. Especially now that is was morning. He usually had quite good self control and he was more than confident when it came to his sexual prowess, but with Erica it was different. He did not know what it was, but there was something about her that made him lose his cocky, confident shield. She made him feel different. He _was_ different around her.

She was different when they were alone too. When they were all together, she was the tough agent that did not let anything affect her. She never let her guards down in front of them if she did not have to. It was just how she was. But at home, when it was only the two of them there, Erica was herself. She was not as tough. _Just trying to stay tough_, she had told him. That was the first time he had seen the real Erica. The first time he saw her when she was not working. He had gone to her house to see how she was doing. _I just wanted to tell you, face to face, that you did bloody good today_, he had told her when she asked why he was there. She had smiled and tried her best to look happy, but her eyes told him a different story. Her eyes were sad and distant. She looked almost vulnerable.

He remembered the bitter taste of the whiskey he had brought her when he went to her house. _Consider this tactical support_. She had accepted the small bottle and looked at him while he continued. He did not remember exactly what he had said, but then she had invited him with a smile. She had looked so unsure and tried to avoid looking at him, but her eyes met his.

He loved her eyes. They were like a sea filled with clear, blue water. A sea of blue. Anyone who looked deep into into her eyes could see that they were filled to the brink with emotion. He knew that they turned indigo. He had noticed that the first night they spent together, and he loved it.

When he had looked around in her kitchen he had spotted the picture of Tyler and Joe. They were sitting at the table with a chocolate cake covered in small candles, which he presumed was since Tyler's birthday, and they were smiling. Kyle could feel the guilt creeping back up as he thought back to that day. He was the one who detonated those explosives. He was the reason that Joe was dead. And the worst part was that Erica did not even know about it. He was going to tell her eventually, but she had enough going on right now. And as she said that first night, she was just trying to stay tough. _I know the feeling_. His mind went back to that night, and the moment when he tried to tell her about Sarah. He had tried to tell her, but she had already looked so lost and vulnerable, he just could not bring himself to tell her more. _I had someone that…that I cared about once_. Erica had watched him sympathetically as he opened up to her, revealing another side of him. A softer side. _But she died_. Her expression changed into a mix of sadness and pain, for him. She looked like she was about to say something but nothing came out. Her eyes moved from him and to the ground, then halfway back up again. But she could not look into his eyes.

She had taken his hand in her small one and he could not resist leaning forward, until his forehead touched hers. He waited for a second, wanting her to make the next move. And she did. Her soft lips met his in a soft kiss, if you could even call it a kiss. She pulled her head away almost as soon as their lips met, her eyes looking everywhere except at him. Although her hand was still holding onto his wrist, she looked unsure and tense. He thought that maybe he should leave at that moment, but before he had a chance to do anything, her left hand grabbed his wrist gently whilst the other one stroked the inside of it. He stared at her, trying to meet her eyes, but she would not look at him. Her breathing had changed, and he knew she was at least a bit turned on. He started breathing heavily as he pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. He had to at least try to have some control over the situation. But her hands let go of his wrist and clutched the hem of his shirt at the same time as his hands wrapped around her waist, waiting for her approval. Erica grabbed his shirt roughly and tugged. _Erica_, he'd said breathless, before her hands found the back of his head and pulled him in for a fierce kiss. His strong hands went under her blue, thin blouse to the soft skin on her back. He pulled her small body against his strong one and deepened the kiss. Everything after that was pure pleasure.

Kyle gently ran his hand up and down her back as he heard her breathing change, indicating that she was slowly waking up. He watched as her eyes opened and closed a few times before she yawned softly and pulled her head of his chest to look at him. He gave her a faint smile as he reached up to stroke a few strands of hair from her face.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her softly as she tightened her grip around his torso.

"It hurts." She whispered as looked into his eyes.

"I'm sorry Erica." He said slowly. "I know there is nothing that I can do to make the pain go away, but I'm here. I will be here for you." He continued as he took her small hand in his.

"I love you." Erica said before she could stop herself.

**AN: Little cliffhanger there... **

**So… I'm a bit stuck and don't really know what to write anymore. I have a plan for the Erica/Hobbes parts in this story but since I am writing about like 10 people, it's a bit hard to come up with the ideas for everyone… I am not going to stop writing, I promise.**  
><strong>But if you have any ideas please let me know and I'll see if I can come up with anything for the rest of the people ;)<strong>

**Please review**


	5. Look Where I Am

I love you.

I _love_ you.

Her words kept repeating themselves in his head as he looked into her blue eyes. Eight letters, three words, one meaning. _I love you_. Those were the three words that meant the most to almost every human. It meant that they would do anything for the person they loved. _I love you_. Erica had just told him that she loved him. They were still in her bed and she had just told him she loved him. He opened his mouth a little, but then closed it again. He could not seem to find any words. He wanted to tell her that he loved her too, but he felt numb. He knew what he wanted to say.

Kyle saw the flicker of panic flash through her eyes when she realized what she had said. And the fact that he had not said anything probably did not help. She turned her head and shifted her gaze to the bathroom door, like she was debating whether to stay or run and hide from him. She removed her hand from his chest and slowly pushed herself into a sitting position. He felt guilty as he watched her.

"I'm sorry…I didn't. I-" Erica whispered as she moved to get out of the bed.

"I love you." Kyle said as sat up and grabbed her wrist gently to stop her from moving. He had said it. He had actually told her he loved her. And he felt relieved. But when she turned her head to look at him, he was surprised to find tears glistening in her eyes.

"I shouldn't have pressured you into saying that. I'm sorry. I- I can't-" She said as she looked at him through blurry eyes.

"I said it because I meant it." Kyle admitted as he looked into her eyes. A lonely tear made its way down her cheek but she quickly wiped it away on the back of her sleeve. "I know that you are hurting and that you're scared. But I'm going to stay here with you for as long as you want me to." He said softly as he grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently.

"You've said that before." She said slowly.

"I know that. And I know I hurt you. I do." He said with regret and guilt evident in his voice. "But I promise you, I will not leave again."

"I trust you. And if you do, I will drag you back here and kick you out myself." Erica said with a small grin as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. He was dumbfounded for a moment before he kissed her back. Her arms instantly wrapped around his neck and he felt her tug at his hair. His brought his free hand to her side and rested it gently on her ribcage.

"You hungry?" He asked as he pulled away and looked at her.

"A bit." She answered with a shrug.

"Let's find something to eat then." He said as he pulled the covers off and stood up.

"Or… You can go and find food and bring it in here." Erica said as she leaned back against the headboard and grinned at him.

"And why the bloody hell would I do that?" Kyle teased as he looked down at her from where he stood.

"Because you told me you love me." She answered with a smirk.

"That's not a reason."

"Just go and find something edible." Erica sighed as she pushed him away and stood up from the bed.

"Where are you going?" He asked quickly.

"The bathroom." She snapped and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Kyle frowned as he stared at the closed door. Something was wrong. Just a few minutes ago Erica had been smiling and teasing him, and the next minute she shut him out completely. Her mood changed in a second. She had been happy, and then she wasn't. Just like that. But he could not blame her. She was in pain. Not physical pain. Emotional. Mental. There was no pill for that. No medicine could really take that pain away. She just had to deal with it the best she could. And he was determined to help her with everything. He loved her. And she knew it. He let out a deep sigh and reluctantly walked towards the kitchen to find something for them to eat.

After a few minutes Kyle heard the shower go on inside the bathroom as he continued going through the cupboards. There was not a lot of food in them. They needed to buy some. He found a bag of muesli and the piece of bread that was left since the other night. That would do it. It was not exactly homemade blueberry pancakes with fresh fruit, but it was at least something.

Erica stood in the shower with eyes closed as she let the steamy water cascade down her body. She reached for the shower handle and turned the hot water up. It always made her feel better. The water was soothing. After a long day at work, a shower or a warm bath always made her relax. Her job at the FBI took a lot out of her, she was constantly feeling stressed and there had almost never been any time left for her family. There was never a slow uneventful day. The only way she was able to relax was her days off, unless Paul called and asked her to come in, which had happened very often during the years she had been working for him. Erica knew she could have said no and stayed home, but she usually went to the office when Paul called.

When Tyler was younger, she was the only one providing for them all. She had done everything around the house even when she had been working all day. It had all started when Joe lost his job. After that, nothing was the same anymore. Joe had been spending his days working on the house or his precious motorcycle, and when he wasn't, he spent most of his time in front of the TV with a bottle of scotch in his hand. Every night he had gone to bed smelling like a brewery. Every night he had been drunk. Alcohol was his way of dealing with everything. But after Tyler's motorcycle accident everything finally collapsed. Their relationship had been unsteady for months, and when Joe found out Tyler was not his biological son, he had left her the same night. He had left her after sixteen years of marriage. She knew Tyler was his son, but Joe had never believed her.

Erica pressed her forehead against the tiled shower wall as she tried to push the bad memories out of her head. She wanted to remember the good parts of her and Joe's life together. They had a lot of good memories together. She reached for the silver handle turned the water off and slowly stepped out of the shower. The air inside the bathroom was moist and the mirror above the sink was foggy from all the steam. She grabbed a red fluffy towel from the towel rack and wrapped it tightly around her body. Kyle was in the bedroom. She could hear his footsteps through the bathroom door. Maybe he was leaving anyway. She had snapped at him for no reason. He had just been teasing her and she knew that. But she still snapped. Her mood changed easily against her will. Erica slowly unlocked the door and turned the handle.

Kyle had put his jeans back on and was just about to reach for his shirt that was lying on the floor, when he heard the click from the lock on the bathroom door. He shifted his gaze towards the door as it opened and Erica stepped out, with only a towel wrapped around her body. Her soaked blond hair was hanging down on her shoulders, dripping down on her chest. He could not tear his eyes away from her. She looked beautiful. She always did.

"Sorry… I was just getting my clothes and…" He said as he cleared his throat and smiled nervously at her. "Yeah…"

"Like what you see Hobbes?" She asked with a smirk as she remembered what he had said a few nights ago. _Like what you see Evans. _

"That's my line." Kyle answered as he buttoned his shirt.

"So you don't like it?" She teased as she turned around and started looking through her drawer for some clothes.

"Oh, you know I do. I like it a lot." He said with a grin. His eyes were sparkling with mischief as he watched her put new clothes on.

"You're hopeless, you know that right?" Erica said she turned around and looked at him.

"You stand in front of me in just a towel, what do you expect?" He answered simply.

She just rolled her eyes and walked past him and into the kitchen. She looked over at the kitchen table. There was muesli and bread on it, along with two glasses of water. She could definitely get used to this.

"We need to buy food." Kyle said as he walked up beside her. She smiled as she noticed that he said we.

"Yeah, I noticed." She answered as she sat down on one of the chairs.

"You wanna go after we're done?" He asked as he took a spoonful of muesli and yoghurt.

"Sure, why not." She answered with a shrug. "This tastes like crap." She continued as she put her sandwich down on the table.

"Well, it's all you have left." He shrugged. "It's not my fault you don't but new food."

"Going to the grocery store is not on the top of my list right now." Erica answered as she glared at him.

"Then what is on the top of your list?" He asked as he glanced at her.

"Making sure Anna will pay for what she did to my son." She answered simply. She knew exactly what she wanted. Anna had to die. She needed to die, just like Tyler had.

"Okay." Kyle said and looked down at his empty bowl. He did not know what to say to her. Not when she talked about her dead son.

"I know I'm acting like it's been months since he died." She mumbled as she stared at her half eaten sandwich. "It hurts like hell. There is no way to describe how much it hurts. I just want to lie down and _die_. But I need to stay focused on everything else right know. The Vs are still here and nothing we have tried has worked."

"So what's your next plan?" He asked slowly.

"Lay low." She answered as she got up from her chair and grabbed their empty bowls.

"That's it?" He asked with a frown as he stood up.

"There is no point to keep trying to stop Anna until we have a real plan." Erica said as she put the bowls in the dishwasher.

"Are you sure? Because…" He said slowly as he looked at her.

"Because what?" She asked as she turned around to look at him.

"We probably don't have that much time left." He said as he walked up next to her and leaned against the counter. "The lizard is moving forward with her plans while we move backwards."

"Oh really? I didn't notice." She answered sarcastically.

"Maybe we should talk to your boss?" He asked. "See what they're up to?"

"They don't have any plans. I went there with Jack yesterday." She answered.

"What did they say?" Kyle asked cautiously.

"Basically that they wouldn't waste their time on delaying Anna's plans. They want to wait until they have something big." She answered.

"Makes sense." He said as he looked at her.

"Let's just focus on the good things today." Erica said with a small smile as she looked up at him.

"I agree with you." He mumbled as he leaned down and kissed her.

"We need to buy…food." She whispered against his lips.

"Mhmm." He said as he kissed her again.

"I'm serious." She said as she pulled away and grinned at him.

"Oh come on. We have to go right _now_?" He said as he tried to pull her back towards his body.

"Yes. I need coffee. And we don't have any." Erica said firmly as she pushed him away once more. She grabbed her car keys and wallet off the counter top. "Hey stop that!" She said as she turned her back to him.

"What? This?" Kyle said innocently as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his chest against her back.

"Yes." She answered with a sigh as she felt him press his lips against her neck.

"You sure you want me to stop?" He whispered against her ear.

"No… But we can't do this now." She said as she grabbed his hand and entwined her fingers with his.

"You're no fun." He mumbled as he reluctantly let go of her.

"Let's just go to the store." She said with a smile.

"Yeah, wouldn't want you to get withdrawal symptoms since you haven't got your daily cup of coffee yet." He said with a grin as he walked towards the door and grabbed his jacket, still holding Erica's hand in his.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Kyle drove down the busy road with Erica in the passenger seat. They were heading to a small grocery store close to where she lived. He glanced at Erica who was currently digging through the glove compartment in front of her.

"What are you looking for?" He asked as he switched lanes and drove past the car in front of them. Driving was something he was particularly good at. He usually drove faster and more reckless, since he always was alone in the car, but now there were two of them.

"I used to have some aspirin in here." She answered.

"You have a headache again?" He asked with a frown.

"Yeah, but I'm out off aspirin." She answered with a sigh as she held up the empty bottle and leaned back against her seat.

"We'll buy some then." He said simply. "You okay though?"

"I'm fine, it's just a headache." She said and rolled her eyes.

"Well, you've had a 'just a headache' pretty often this week." He pointed out as he pulled into an empty parking spot.

"I'm stressed and tired, don't worry I'm fine." She said and opened her door and got out of the car.

"Of course I worry about you." He said honestly as he walked around to her side of the car and kissed her.

He grabbed her hand and walked towards the entrance of the small grocery store. They were acting like a real couple. Holding hands and going to the store together. He loved her. She loved him. They loved each other. But there were still a lot of things they had to work out. He needed to tell her about the fact that he was practically the one who killed her ex-husband. But the feeling of being close to her, talking about good and bad things – like his past – made him happy.

Kyle let go of her hand when they got inside and he grabbed a cart. They walked down the different aisles and grabbed the items they needed. Bread, fruit, juice and a lot of other things soon filled the cart.

"We should make something good tonight." Erica said with a smile as they continued to walk through the aisles.

"Like what?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"I don't know, pasta maybe?" She said with a shrug.

"Yeah, sure." He answered as Erica grabbed a package of spaghetti and threw it in the cart.

"What did you eat when you were on the run?" Erica asked as she stopped to look at him. "I mean, you didn't really have a house to live in, with a kitchen to cook in…"

"I bought fast food, at least most of the time." He answered and looked at her with a questioning look. "Why?"

"Seeing the person you are right now, I can't imagine you being out there." She said sincerely, referring to the streets where he used to spend his life in.

"I got used to it." He said slowly. "But I don't want to go there again. This is my chance to get a life again." He continued as he looked into her eyes.

"Chris told me about the work you did for them. The real reason you joined the Fifth Column." She said slowly. She needed to know why he did it. He sighed and looked away.

"I joined the Fifth Column to provide your boss and his annoying friend with information about what your plans were, who you were working with and what and how much you knew. When Paul Kendrick found me a few months ago I thought I was going to prison for the rest of my life. But look where I am. The only thing he wanted me to do was to go undercover for a while, and then I was free. I should be in prison. Everyone knows that. Even I know that. But I'm not. And…" He paused and looked at her again, his expression filled with pain and regret.

"When did they let you go?" She asked, her eyes watering slightly from his confession.

"Remember the night Marcus was shot? They called me afterwards and told me to leave the Fifth Column. I don't know why, didn't really care either." He answered firmly. _Your part in this undercover investigation is over_. "I couldn't leave. I needed to be there."

"I'm glad you stayed." She said honestly as she took a step forward and hugged him. He hugged her back as tightly as he could with the cart hanging loosely on his elbow.

"Let's grab the last things we need and then head home." He said when they pulled back.

"I need aspirin." Erica pointed out.

"Don't you need to go to the pharmacy to buy those?" He asked with a frown.

"Depends on the amount you need. That's why I go to this store." She answered nonchalantly.

"Okay." He said simply. "You need any woman stuff?"

"What?" She asked confusedly as she stopped and looked at him.

"These kinds of things." He said as he pointed to the different kinds of tampons in the aisle they were currently in. He felt a bit embarrassed about being there, especially since it was Erica and they had not said a word about these kinds of things before.

"Oh… I don't…" Erica stammered quietly as she looked at the different packages. She should need them. According to her cycle, she should. But she could not remember. "I've been stressed and… I haven't…" She said slowly.

"Right. Okay." He said with an awkward smile as they continued towards the cash register.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

Jack stepped off the bus outside the New York State University where Sid had his private lab. He had only been there a few times, along with the rest of the team. This was the place where Sid spent most of his time when he was not down at the basement with them. Jack was not really sure what Sid was actually doing in his lab every day, but he assumed it was research and different tests. At least that was all Sid had told them.

He passed a few people as he walked up the steps and in through the doors of the University. The air inside the building was warmer than outside, where it was cold and raining. He pressed the elevator button and went up two stories. The hallway towards Sid's lab was empty, and so was the small bench next to the stairwell. Almost every time Jack had been here to visit Sid, the hallway had been filled with students, or at least people.

"Sid?" He called out as he opened the door and stepped inside the messy lab.

"Yeah, in here." He heard Sid answer from somewhere back in the lab.

"What are you working on?" Jack asked as he found Sid behind a microscope.

"Well, after we found out about the Vs plans to fast track their own evolution, I began to test all kinds of things on both Alpha and the DNA samples we got from Malik. Since the Vs are not that different from humans, they must have some kind of weakness. I've been trying to find something out that might be able to help us defeat them. And I think I might be on to something." Sid answered as he looked up at Jack from where he was sitting.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked with a frown.

"This is a virus, created with a mixture of phosphorus and a few other chemical substances." Sid said as he held up a tiny bottle filled with a light blue liquid.

"A virus for what?" He asked as he studied the colored liquid before returning his gaze to Sid.

"If I'm right, this virus could do a lot of damage to the kind of DNA the Visitors have." Sid replied slowly.

"How do you mean, do a lot of damage?" Jack asked as he sat down.

"Well, look at this." Sid said and shifted the microscope so that Jack could look. "You see those DNA cells?"

"Yeah." Jack answered as he pressed his eyes to the microscope.

"Look at what happens when I add the virus." He said as he added a few drops of the blue liquid.

"The cells are moving. The DNA is shattering." Jack said slowly and looked up again.

"Exactly. If I can make some adjustments in the mixture, I think I can get the DNA cells to attack themselves and the body, which makes the person injected with the virus injured." Sid said with a nod.

"Adjustments?" Jack said.

"Well, I'm not exactly done testing yet. The virus could kill someone if it was used before I'm done." Sid replied. Before he could say anything more Jack heard his phone ring.

"It's Chad." Jack said with a small frown as he looked at the screen. "Jack."

"_Turn on your TV. Anna is making an announcement about the bliss. Thought you might want to see it." Chad said as he answered._

"Okay. I will. Thank you." Jack said hung up the phone as he stood up and nodded for Sid to follow him outside.

"Where are we going?" Sid asked as he locked the door to his room.

"According to Chad, Anna is about to make some sort of announcement about the bliss. Is there a TV here somewhere?" Jack asked.

"Follow me." Sid answered and walked down the hallway with Jack following him.

AN: I am SO SO SO sorry for the long wait. I haven't had much time..

Thank you for the reviews, they make me want to write more!

Anyway, here is chapter five. Enjoy and review (:


	6. The City Is Even More Beautiful At Night

Three long days had passed since she had told Paul about Tyler's death. Three days that felt like a lifetime filled with pain and misery. Lisa had stayed down on the ground after she went to the FBI office a second time that day and told Paul about everything. She had told him about her involvement with the Fifth Column and what she had helped them achieve. She had told him the truth about her mother and what she was doing, her plans for humanity. It had felt good. When she'd told him the truth, it felt as if a heavy weight was lifted from her chest. Body. Heart. She had felt so bad holding it all in. The secrets had been eating her inside out, until she couldn't hold it in any longer.

When her mother had set course towards Earth and informed her about her assignment with the teenage boy named Tyler, she had never expected it to turn out this way. Flirting and fake emotions with a human should have been easy. She was a Visitor. She should not have any emotions. But she had fallen in love with Tyler. Not a teenage crush, but the real thing. And now, after everything she'd told Paul and everything she'd done, she was afraid to go up to her own ship and meet her mother.

The Cooper Square Hotel down on Manhattan had been her hiding place during the last few days, since she had no plans to return any time soon. The small, modern room she had rented was located on the eleventh floor. From the huge windows covering almost the entire wall of her room, she could see the gigantic buildings and skyscrapers that covered the whole Manhattan and became a world of its own. The Empire State Building stood in the middle – taller than all the other buildings – with the top shining in a sharp green color. Tyler had brought her up the one night to show her the view and even though she could watch the entire skyline of the city from the windows in her room up at the ship, it had been incredible. Tyler had made her feel things she never thought was possible.

In the distance, Lisa could see the Chrysler building from where she sat in the window frame in her hotel room. It was almost dark outside. The street lights were glowing down on 3rd Avenue. In her eyes, the city was even more beautiful at night. Everything was dark except for the roads and the windows in every building or house. But now there was a giant ship hovering above the middle of Manhattan. Lisa almost glared as she stared at the bottom of it. This was not how everything was supposed to be. None of this should have happened.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a firm knock on the door that created a faint echo throughout the room. It was probably someone from the hotel staff, coming to clean the room again. The hotel was newly built and very modern, which meant that it was also being cleaned often. Lisa turned her head towards the door, wishing that the person behind it would move on to the next room and come back later. She just wanted to be alone. But the person knocked again, a bit harder this time. With a sigh, she pulled herself off the window frame and slowly walked towards the door, avoiding the small stain on the beige carpet floor. She had no idea what it was or how long it had been there, but she had discovered it when she had arrived in her room. As she opened the heavy, wooden door she was met with a pair of blue eyes that almost matched her own.

"Mrs. Evans… What are you doing here?" Lisa asked as she stepped back as Erica took a few steps into the room.

"How many times have I told you to call me Erica?" She said with a faint smile. "I'm not Mrs. Evans anymore."

"How did you find me?" Lisa asked as she closed the door.

"I have worked for the FBI for thirteen years; I know how to find the things I want." Erica answered as she looked out through the window.

Lisa had no idea why Erica was there or what she wanted. She had not talked to anyone for three days, except for the hotel staff. Every morning when she had called room service and ordered blueberry pancakes with juice, it had been the same young, brown-haired man who delivered her breakfast every time. He was kind and always gave her a small smile before he walked down the hallway again. His brown hair had reminded her of Tyler.

"I've always wanted to come and stay at this hotel for a few nights." Erica said after a few minutes of silence. She did not turn away from the window as she continued talking. "But there was never any time. I worked almost twelve hours a day, every week. The view is amazing."

"It's the reason I went here." Lisa said quietly.

"What happened to you?" Erica asked, referring to the last few days.

"She…She brought me back to the ship." Lisa answered slowly as she swallowed hard. "She knew that I tried to kill her at the warehouse…I don't know how, but she does. And you were right about everything, she lied to me. Then she… she…She killed Diana and I-I…" Lisa said with tears streaming down her face.

"I know. It's alright." Erica said as she embraced the young woman. Even though Lisa had failed her mission, Erica knew she had loved Tyler. And that Tyler had loved her. "I know what happened." Erica whispered, referring to her son.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Lisa cried as she pulled back and looked up at Erica.

"It wasn't your fault." Erica said, emotion making her voice thick.

"How can you not blame me?" Lisa asked with an almost pleading look.

"He loved you." Erica answered with a faint smile. "And blaming you won't bring him back."

"I can bring him back." Lisa said quietly.

"What? How?" Erica said firmly.

"Joshua still has his body frozen up at the ship." Lisa said and cringed. "If I become queen, I can bring him back."

"_If _you become queen?" Erica repeated slowly as she looked at her.

"I don't know how it works." Lisa answered.

"We need to come up with a new plan to eliminate your mother." Erica said firmly as she turned her gaze towards the window once again.

"I can't go back up to her, I'm sorry, but I just can't." Lisa said quickly.

"I'm not asking you to. We still have Joshua." Erica answered.

"Erica, I want to help." Lisa said with a pleading voice. "My mother took _everything_ from me. I can't just hide here and do nothing." She continued as a few tears made their way down her cheeks. "I have no one left."

"Hey, listen to me Lisa." Erica said softly as she turned around and looked into Lisa's tear filled eyes. "You still have me. I'm not going anywhere. I am going to help you if you help me."

"I'll do anything you want. But I won't go back up there. I can't. Not yet." Lisa said quietly as she sat down on the king size bed.

"I know. It's okay." Erica replied when she heard her phone ring. She picked it up and smiled as she checked the name of the caller. "Hello?"

Lisa watched as Erica answered her phone with a smile on her face. She had no idea who could be calling her, let alone make her that happy. Her son was dead, but somehow she managed to survive and continue with her life the best she could. But even though she looked fine, Lisa could see that she had been crying. Behind the apparent fatigue in her face, her eyes were slightly swollen and red.

"Yeah, I'll be down in a minute." Erica said as she hung up and flipped her phone shut.

"Anything important?" Lisa asked with a faint smile as she watched Erica debate whether or not she was going to tell her about it.

"I have to go. Kyle is down in the car…" Erica answered slowly.

"Kyle?" Lisa asked confusedly.

"Yeah… Kyle Hobbes." Erica answered quietly. "He's sort of… been there."

"Okay." Lisa answered, and decided not to ask any more.

"Listen to me Lisa, this is important." Erica started firmly. "Do not contact anyone except Paul or me. If you need anything, call me and I'll help you. You're not alone Lisa."

"I'll stay here." Lisa said with a small nod.

"Good." Erica said and sighed as she heard her phone buzzing.

"He's getting impatient." Lisa pointed out with a small smile.

"Yeah, he's like that." Erica replied grin as she thought about his childish and unpredictable behavior. Kyle had two completely different personalities, depending on where he was and who he was with. Around the Fifth Column and other people he was the Hobbes she had first met and worked with. But now, when it was only the two of them, he was Kyle. "Well, I should go. And remember-" She continued as she opened the door.

"I'll find you if I need anything." Lisa finished for her.

"Don't hesitate." Erica said with a smile as she stepped out and closed the door behind her. She heard Lisa turn the lock on the door from inside the room before she turned and started walking towards the elevators down the hall.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"Took you long enough."

"I'm not even in the car yet, and you're already complaining." Erica said with a smile as she shook her head and looked at him where he leaned against the car, arms crossed over his chest. He cocked his head slightly and grinned at her.

"I was bored." He answered with a shrug.

"Well, I'm sorry I kept you waiting." She snapped at him.

"Hey I was just kidding." He answered with a frown. "No need to get all bitchy on me."

"Oh, so now you're calling me a bitch?" She said as she pushed him out of the way and got into the passenger seat. He walked around the car and got in.

"Oh, come on. You know that's not what I meant." He replied loudly as he clenched his jaw to keep himself from yelling at her.

"Fine. Just take me home." She answered coldly as she turned her head and looked out through the car window.

"No." He said in a low voice.

"What do mean_ no_?" Erica asked with a glare as she glanced at him.

"We're not leaving this parking lot until you tell me what the bloody hell is going on with you." He replied calmly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked with a frown.

"Erica, you get angry at me and you snap at me for no reason." He answered his voice softer than before. "If there is something wrong, you have to tell me."

"Nothing is wrong." Erica said as she looked at his unconvinced face. "I promise."

"Then why?" He asked slowly.

"I don't know." She answered as she closed her eyes and sighed. "I can't control myself, I'm exhausted and I just… I don't know."

"And the headaches?" He asked quietly as he stroked her thigh slowly.

"They're not that bad." Erica answered honestly. It was the truth.

"But you still have them." He pointed out.

"Look, I don't know how much you read in my medical files." She started slowly. "But after my pregnancy with Tyler, the preeclampsia and the phosphorus, the doctors gave me prescriptions for several different medications. I had to take some of the pills every day for months."

"Why? I thought preeclampsia stopped after the birth?" Kyle asked with a frown. It had been a few years since he had helped Sarah study, but he still remembered a lot about the different diseases and symptoms. Every night Sarah had given him the small white cards with questions on one side and the answer on the other. Then he had asked her the question and she had answered. Simple as that. And Sarah had been determined to get all the answers right before she went to bed. To become a doctor and help people had been her dream.

"It does." Erica replied with a nod, wondering how he knew that. "But during the last week of my pregnancy, I had a couple of seizures caused by eclampsia, which in turn led to a number of different things." She continued and looked at him, the pain evident in both her eyes and voice.

"Erica, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He said softly.

"You should know." She answered simply.

"Okay." He said with a nod. "So the eclampsia led to what?"

"The preeclampsia combined with the high levels of phosphorus made my immune system shut down. My doctors had no idea what was happening, they had never seen anything like it. Now I understand why." She said as she played with the hem of her shirt.

"But you got better?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, after a few weeks of bed rest at the hospital and another couple of months at home, taking pills to strengthen my immune system." Erica replied as she looked out at the people walking past their car.

"You sure you didn't strengthen it too much?" He said in a teasing voice as he squeezed her knee gently.

"What?" She asked as turned around and looked at him with raised eye brows.

"You're one of the most stubborn women I've ever met." He answered honestly. "Not to mention the strongest."

"No. That's just me." She said with a smile.

"So we're fine?" He said as he cocked his head and looked at her.

"Yeah, we're fine." She answered as she leaned over and kissed him. He grabbed the back of her head and deepened the kiss.

"I'm sorry." He whispered as he pulled back and rested his forehead against her. "I didn't mean it."

"I know." Erica said as she tilted her head to kiss him once again. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"I think your phone is vibrating." He mumbled between kisses.

"What?" She said confusedly, before she realized what he meant. She reached down and grabbed her vibrating cell phone. "It's Paul."

"Of course it is." Kyle muttered as he leaned back against his seat and watched her. "Always has to ruin the moment."

Erica rolled her eyes at his childish behavior as she flipped her phone open and pressed it against her ear. "Evans."

"_Erica. It's me." Paul said firmly. "I've been trying to reach you for the last couple of hours, where have you been?" _

"I was busy." Erica replied. Kyle grinned at her response.

"_Well, we need you to come in here." _

"Okay, when?" Erica asked.

"_Now." Paul said firmly. _

"I'm still off duty." Erica stated slowly.

"_Erica." He said sternly. "You really need to come here." _

"Fine. I'll be there in a few minutes." She replied as she hung up.

"Where are we going?" Kyle asked as he started the engine and put the car in reverse.

"Paul and Chris need me at their headquarter as soon as possible." She answered as she glanced at the tall hotel in the rearview mirror. One day she was definitely going to stay there for a few nights. Hopefully he would stay with her as well.

"Did he tell you what he wanted?" Kyle asked as he glanced at her.

"No, not really. But it has to be important, or he wouldn't call me." She answered. Erica knew that Paul would never ask her to work if it had not been important. Not after what had happened.

"Of course he wouldn't." Kyle said sarcastically.

"I've known him for seven years. He is my _friend_." Erica said slowly.

"Doesn't mean I have to like him." Kyle answered.

"No, it doesn't." Erica replied. "But you have to at least try not to give him a black eye every time you see him. You owe him."

"I know." He said slowly. She was right. Paul Kendrick was the reason he could be with Erica instead of prison. He owed him everything. "I only hit him once." He continued as he parked the car. Erica laughed at him.

"From what I've heard, that wasn't the first time he was a victim of yours." Erica said as she got out of the car.

"What are you talking about?" He asked and locked the car.

"He told me about your fight when he tried to arrest you a few years back. Although, that was in Philadelphia, not here." Erica said as they walked towards the stairs.

"Yeah, I remember." He answered slowly. "I didn't really win that fight. I got lucky."

"He told me that too." Erica said. "He had you but some bystander didn't know he was a cop so he tried to help you."

"Something like that." Kyle answered slowly. He could still remember that cold November night. It had been completely dark outside and the sky had been filled with rainclouds. Paul had somehow found out where he was hiding at that time and he had been waiting for him to come out. There had been a bad fight. Both of them had left the street with bleeding cuts and bruises. And if that bystander had not been there, he would have left in hand cuffs.

He leaned forwards slightly as he pressed his thumb against the elevator button on the wall. There was a sharp ping, followed by the sound of the elevator going up. He felt Erica lean against him and put her head against his hard shoulder. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"You tired?" He asked slowly as he pressed his lips to the side of her head.

"A bit." She answered with a nod. "I didn't get that much sleep last night since you decided to keep me awake half the night." She continued as she looked up at him with a grin.

"Hey, I didn't hear you complain about it last night." He said as he nudged her shoulder lightly. "You were a very willing participant."

"You are incorrigible." She said as she shook her head and stepped into the elevator.

"And from what I recall, you were the one who wanted to continue." He pointed out as he leaned against the wall as the elevator went down.

"Are you complaining?" Erica asked with a smile.

"No." He answered with a smirk. "Definitely not."

"Good." She said as she stood in front of him and pressed her body against his. His strong hands rested on her waist as he looked deep into her blue eyes. She smiled softly before pressing her lips against his.

Kyle responded by deepening their kiss and maneuvered them so that he was in front of her, pushing her back up against the hard wall. Her small hands immediately went to his hair and tugged slightly as he let out a low groan. The sound of the elevator arriving forced them to pull apart, both of them breathing heavily. The door opened and they stepped out as a few men dressed in grey and black suits stepped on.

"That elevator was too fast." He whispered hoarsely in her ear as they passed a guard in the hallway.

"Yeah." Erica answered quietly. "It was."

"Come on. Let's go find your _friend_." Kyle said as he opened the door for her and then stepped inside the big room after her.

"Stop." Erica said in a warning tone as she looked at him before walking towards the small office where Paul and Chris worked when they were down at the Project Aries.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"Paul." He heard the familiar voice say.

"Erica." Paul greeted as he looked up from his paperwork. He was not surprised to find Hobbes standing behind her, a displeased look on his face. "You got here fast."

"Well, you asked me to come here immediately, and I did." Erica answered. "We were out anyway."

"Come in and close the door." Paul said as Chris walked past the couple and put a pile of folders on the desk. He muttered a distracted 'hello' and then opened the top folder and showed Paul. Erica watched as Paul read through the paper before he nodded and looked back up at her.

"What is going on?" Erica asked firmly as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at them.

"There is a gathering of terrorists tonight out in Jersey and we have discovered they are working against the humanity." Chris replied as he pulled out a few pictures, all of them showing different men.

"You mean they are working for the Vs?" Erica asked with a frown.

"Yes. But that's not all." Paul said slowly. "A government shipment filled with C4 and weapons were stolen last night. The truck was heading for the New York military base but it never arrived and that's when they contacted us. We had a mole inside the terrorist organization but we haven't heard anything from him for two days."

"What would they need so much C4 for?" Erica asked slowly.

"If they are terrorists, that amount will only be used for one thing." Kyle said firmly. "They want to kill."

"He's right." Paul said. "The last thing our undercover agent told us was that there was going to be a meeting, where everyone involved in this organization would come to, to get information about their target and mission."

"Where is this meeting going to take place exactly?" Erica asked.

"In an abandoned warehouse located in the forest outside New York." Paul answered as he pulled out a small, detailed map from the folder and pointed at a small square on it.

"That's in the middle of nowhere." Erica pointed out as she studied the area where the empty warehouse was located.

"A perfect place if you don't want to be found." Hobbes said as he glanced upwards at Paul and Chris.

"Do you have any idea what their target could be?" Erica asked.

"No. Our agent never got a chance to tell us that information before he went missing." Paul answered with a sigh. "He was on his way to meet one of the leaders in this organization at that same warehouse, but after that we haven't heard anything from him."

"Why haven't you sent a team out there to find him?" Erica asked with a frown.

"Because we only have one shot at this." Chris answered firmly. "And if we send a team out there, everything will be compromised and this operation has been for nothing. We can't risk that."

"We need to know what they are planning before its too late." Paul continued as he looked at them.

"Okay." Erica nodded slowly. "So what's your plan?"

Hobbes watched as Paul exchanged a look with Chris, who nodded slowly before he sighed and took a few steps towards them. Chris had been standing in the corner for most of the conversation and he had not said that much. But Hobbes knew that Paul and Chris were working on everything together, they shared all the information and made all the decisions together.

"We need a new undercover agent to go to that meeting." Chris said.

"What has that got to do with me?" Erica asked firmly, although she already knew the answer.

"You're the only one with enough field training and experience. You are going under cover." Chris answered as he looked at her.

"Okay." Erica answered slowly after a short silence.

"No." Kyle suddenly said from behind her, his voice firm and filled with anger.

"I'm sorry, but you don't have a say in this." Chris said coldly.

"I don't care what the bloody hell you say, but she is _not_ going." He said loudly.

"Kyle." Erica said firmly. "It's fine."

"There are other people that can do this." He said.

"No there isn't." Paul interrupted. "As Chris said, Erica is the only one with enough experience to do this."

"What do I have to do?" Erica asked before Hobbes could respond.

"Go to the meeting, find out as much as you can about the C4 they stole and what their target is." Paul answered with a nod.

"What about the missing agent?" She asked with a frown.

"Leave that to us." Chris said quickly.

"Okay." Erica nodded. "Let's do this."

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"Erica we have to leave. You ready?" Paul yelled as he stood by the elevator door.

"Yeah, let's go." She answered as she walked towards him with Kyle right behind her.

"You're not coming." Paul said firmly as he looked at Hobbes.

"What are talking about?" Hobbes asked with a frown.

"I don't need you out there." Paul replied as he motioned for one of the guards to stop Hobbes from leaving with them.

"Paul, what are you doing?" Erica asked as she looked at him.

"If this is going to work and you want to get out of that warehouse unharmed, we can have our own agents there." Paul replied shortly as he walked out the door.

"I'm not letting you go out there alone." Hobbes said as he grabbed her wrist to prevent her from moving.

"I don't want you to." Erica answered as she looked up at him. He could see the fear and uncertainty in her eyes. She did not want to do this. "But you have to."

"You don't have to do this Erica." He said, his voice soft and filled with concern.

"I know, but we need to stop them before it's too late." She answered slowly as she leaned against him. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"Don't tell me not to worry." He whispered as he pulled her into an embrace.

"M'sorry." She said, her voice muffled by his thick jacket.

"If something happens to you, I'll hit more than once this time." Hobbes whispered slowly. "Slightest little scrape."

"No you won't." Erica said she pulled away with a small smile on her lips.

"Don't forget this." He said as he handed her the flak jacket. "I'll see you soon."

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

**I AM SORRY that I haven't been able to update this. I just started a new school and it's been so much going on. **

**Hope you don't hate me **_too_** much. ;) **

**Sorry if there is any mistakes or something like that in the text. English is not my first language. ^^**

**PLEASE REVIEW. **

**XX**


	7. Going Undercover

The magnificent full moon was the only thing that made it possible to see anything in the dark forest outside New York. It was pitch black at some places where the light from the moon could not reach. But that was not a bad thing. It was the opposite. They needed to be able to hide their large van, in case the terrorists would spot it on their way towards the warehouse. And the van filled with electronics and people handling the communication between them, was colored black for a reason. She knew that. This was not her first time going out in the field to infiltrate a criminal organization. Unlike her, usually the agents that worked undercover were much more experienced than she was, since they had been working undercover for almost their entire career. She was a field agent. But sometimes she was more than that. Tonight was one of those times.

Erica leaned against a large tree as she stared into the darkness in front of her. She could see the trees shining light blue from the moon's glow. Everything looked like it was covered with a thin layer of ice. It almost felt as if that would be possible, since the air was cold and dry. The weather had been shifting from humid and warm on day, to cold and windy the next. It had been raining off and on. Typical November weather. Erica liked it, she always had, but tonight she wished it had been a bit warmer. Or at least have his body to press against, his arms wrapped around her and his hot breath on her neck as she stole his body heat. As she shivered, both from the cold and the thought of him, she regretted that she had not pushed Paul to let Kyle come with them. Erica knew that she would probably have been able to convince him easily if she had just asked. Paul was kind, and he listened to her. He had hired her when she was still pretty young, trained her up himself and they shared a special friendship. On duty, he was her boss, but outside of work they were good friends.

"Evans."

Erica turned slowly at the sound of Paul's quiet voice and found him standing a few meters behind her, his hands in his pockets and head cocked slightly to the side as he locked at her. He was wearing dark blue jeans and a dark jacket with the label FBI on the back of it. She had the same jacket. When she did not answer him, he continued.

"Are you ready?" He said.

"No, not really." She answered honestly. "But I won't be later either so let's just do this."

"There's the Erica I know." He said with a small laugh.

"Yeah, here I am." She replied slowly. "So what do need to do?"

"According to our heat detector there are at least seven persons inside the warehouse at the moment. There might be more on the way, we can't know for sure. We don't know if they are armed or if they have the C4 inside." Paul said firmly. "You need to find out if it is in there, and what their target it. Those are the most important things, except for your safety of course."

"Right." Erica answered.

"Wear this." Paul said as he handed her the flak jacket Hobbes had given her earlier. Erica slowly took of her FBI jacket and put on the bulletproof jacket. It was more of a vest, but they usually called it a jacket, for some reason. She covered it with her other jacket and adjusted her shirt so that her microphone would not be spotted.

"You good?" Paul asked as he looked at her.

"Yeah." Erica answered simply. "Let's do this."

"Okay then." Paul said as he nodded and started walking towards the rest of the group. Erica followed closely behind him.

"Bolling." Paul called as they stopped outside the large black van. After a few seconds Chris came out, clad in the same outfit as Paul and the rest of the team. "Is everything ready?"

"We're ready to start if you are." Chris answered firmly as he looked at Erica. When he saw no signs of hesitation on her face, he gestured for them to come inside the back of the van. The four young agents that were handling the electronics and communication barely looked up from their computers when they entered.

"Tell me the plan again." Erica said.

"The warehouse is located about 800 meters from here. There are at least seven people inside and probably a few more on the way, but we can't be sure. As I mentioned on the way here, your mission is to find the C4 and figure out what their target is." Chris explained.

"And the SWAT team will be ready to move in as soon as we get the information we need." Paul interrupted.

"Well, even if I get the information, they don't need to storm the warehouse." Erica said with a frown.

"Erica, as soon as we get the location of the C4, we can move in to arrest the people inside." Paul answered slowly.

"I can go in, get information we need, place a hidden microphone somewhere and then get out of there." She answered simply. "That way we can listen to everything they say and record it at the same time."

"I will not take that risk Erica." Paul answered. "We have no idea who we are dealing with."

"I think she might be right." Chris said slowly as they both turned to look at him.

"What are you talking about?" Paul asked with an incredulous look.

"Well, if we arrest the men inside that warehouse, how do we know that they don't have more C4 or something worse at another location? They might have more than one target."

"And that's why I should go in and plant a mic there before we let the team loose." Erica said firmly.

"Fine." Paul answered with defeat. He knew that if Erica wanted something, she would do it.

"I'll inform the team about the changes." Chris said as he walked away.

"And then we'll start." Paul said with a nod as he turned towards Erica.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"Damn it."

Jack looked up from the book he was reading and frowned at the sight in front of him. Sid was standing next to his lab equipment, in his lab coat and safety goggles, and a small glass bottle filled with another mixture of the virus he was trying so desperately to complete. He had tried to add several different substances, but none of them had worked yet.

Jack had spent the last few days trying to help Sid with the things he actually could do. He was a priest, not a scientist, so all he had been doing was order new substances for Sid to work on.

"It didn't work?" Jack asked, although he already knew the answer.

"No. It. Did. Not." Sid answered as he threw his hands in the air. "No matter how many different mixtures I try, _nothing_ works. Not a single one. And I'm usually good at science and biology, but this; this is just out of my league. You guys and your freaking viruses are making me insane!"

"Calm down, you're not insane." Jack said with a tiny grin as he put the book down and leaned back to watch the young man.

"Don't tell me what I'm not." Sid said quickly. "And do _not_ laugh at me right now, because if you do, I will personally inject you with one of the untested viruses that I already have in here, which you definitely wouldn't want in your system."

"Mhmm." Jack answered in an amused tone as he picked up his phone.

"Okay. I'm not going to do that. I'm not insane." Sid said as he took a deep breath to calm down.

"Are you done?" Jack asked as he glanced up quickly.

"Yup, just a momentary freak out." Sid answered simply. "Probably caused by sleep deprivation and high amounts of caffeine."

"You know, maybe you should get some sleep at night instead of spending it here?" Jack suggested. "Although, we do need that virus as soon as possible."

"Oh, like I didn't already figure that out myself." Sid muttered as he started gathering new equipment for his next mixture. The sink was practically filled with half empty glass bottles that had been used to try and develop the perfect virus.

"Are you sure it's perfectly safe to have all these chemicals at one place?" Jack asked as he stood up and walked over to the sink.

"They're not going to explode or catch on fire, if that's what you're asking." Sid answered simply. "But it's not the best place to put them, but I'm too busy at the moment to even bother washing all of those."

"Then I will do that." Jack said. "And you continue with the virus mixture."

"Great." Sid muttered as he poured some phosphorus into a few small test tubes. Then he added a different substance to each tube, to see which one worked the best. "You know, this is like the hundredth time I do this."

"I know." Jack answered. "I've been here most of the time."

"You've spent most of your time here reading a book about supernatural phenomenon or your Bible." Sid said.

"Actually the book is about science, but it mentions a bit about other things too." Jack answered with a small shrug.

"And one of those things is supernatural phenomenon, like Alpha back there." Sid said with a nod towards the door in the back of the lab.

"How do you know that?" Jack asked with a frown.

"I've read that book a few times." Sid answered. "After I discovered Alpha a few years back, I was desperate to find something similar, or at least someone that had found something like I did. So I bought a few books, read them all and threw them all away."

"Why?" Jack asked confusedly.

"Because what they describe in those books are nothing like what I found. I couldn't risk the chance of anyone finding out about Alpha before I was sure that I had done everything I could to find out what it was and where it came from." Sid answered firmly.

"Did you ever find out if there was someone else that had found something similar to Alpha?" Jack asked as he started the water in the sink.

"No." Sid answered. "But I guess as soon as the government gets a clue about something like this, there is no way they would let the people know."

"And that's why you kept Alpha down here, hidden from everyone?" Jack said, more as a statement than a question.

"Yeah, but I guess that was a good thing." Sid replied.

"To us, it's a really good thing you did." Jack said. "If you hadn't, we wouldn't have been able to understand anything about the Vs, or anything else for that matter."

"Well, I'm very proud to be a Fifth Column." Sid said.

"Good, you should be." Jack said and started rinsing the now empty tubes.

"By the way, have you heard from Erica today?" Sid asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah, I spoke to her earlier this afternoon. She told me that she was going out to New Jersey on some undercover mission." Jack answered slowly. "Why?"

"I just thought I'd update her on how we're doing with the virus." Sid answered. "An undercover mission for what?"

"She didn't really tell me everything, but I think it was something about a meeting with terrorists that had stolen a cargo filled with explosives." Jack answered firmly.

"Who has a van filled with explosives in New Jersey?" Sid said with a frown.

"Apparently it was a truck heading for the New York military base, but it never arrived." Jack answered and dried his hands on a small white towel.

"How come they get to go out and o undercover missions and save the world while we're stuck inside a lab doing the same procedures over and over?" Sid said.

"Don't you remember the last time you went out with us on a mission?" Jack asked with raised eye brows. "You threw up for ten minutes before you went in."

"That's not the point." Sid muttered.

"And I hate being out there, especially when I know people will get hurt." Jack said sincerely.

"And yet, you served two tours in Iraq." Sid said slowly.

"That was years ago." He answered slowly. "And I was a Chaplain, not a soldier."

Sid glanced at Jack, who had just picked up his book and sat down again, and decided to drop the subject. The look on Jack's face told him that it was not something he enjoyed talking about. So he turned to his microscope and continued with his own work.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

"_Agent Evans, can you hear me?" _

"Yes." Erica answered as she carefully walked through the darkness. "I hear you."

After they had been through the plan once again, Erica had left the team to go to the warehouse. She had her microphone under the collar of her shirt and a tiny earphone so that she could hear Paul and Chris during the time she would be inside with the terrorists.

"_How far in are you at the moment?" An unfamiliar voice asked, probably one of the young agents she had met inside the van earlier. _

"I don't know, I can't see anything in here." Erica replied slowly. "Maybe 500 meters or something."

"_Then you should be able to see the warehouse soon." The man said. _

"I think I see it." Erica said as she spotted a small light in the distance. "There is a yellow light shining."

"_It must be the warehouse. There are no other buildings or houses in this area." The man told her. _

"I'm almost there now." Erica whispered as she neared the location. She heard a muffled sound through the earpiece and then it was no longer the young agent speaking to her, but Paul.

"_Erica, it's me." He said quickly. "Are you there yet?" _

"Yes." She whispered as she looked around to be sure that there was no one outside the warehouse. "I'm right outside the door."

"_OK. Here is what I want you to do." He explained. "When you get inside I want you to count how many people are in there and tell me. But be careful so that they don't suspect anything. I will continue to talk to you and the team is ready to move if something happens. Just give me the signal."_

"What signal?" Erica said firmly. "If you decided on a signal, no one remembered to tell me."

"_Well, it's a bit messy over here." He answered with a frustrated sigh. "When you need help or something happens, just say the word 'Christmas', and the team will move in." _

"Christmas?" She asked. "How the hell am I supposed to work that into a sentence when we're dealing with terrorists?"

"That's your problem. Now go inside so that we can get this whole thing over with." He said firmly.

Erica slowly opened the wooden old door and took a few steps inside the spacious warehouse but stopped when she heard faint voices. They were coming from a room somewhere in the back. She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, trying to push the nervousness away before walking towards the voices.

As she came closer to the room, a man suddenly walked out and almost bumped into her. Erica's first thought was to pull her gun out, but the young man mumbled an quick 'sorry' before walking towards the door she just came in through. She watched him walk away, contemplating whether to go after him. But she needed to get to the rest of the people inside.

Erica took a deep breath, calming herself down before knocking firmly on the door. There was a hollow echo and then only silence. The voices inside the room were gone and all she could hear was her own breathing. But then there she heard quiet whispers and footsteps. Then, the door opened and she found herself looking into the dark green eyes of a middle-aged man with short brown hair. He was wearing a black leather jacket with a grey shirt under and dark blue jeans. The man frowned and looked at her, sizing her up. Erica swallowed and remained still, as she waited.

"Who are you?" The man asked, his voice deep and a bit hoarse.

"I was told this was where the meeting was going to be held. Who are you?" She responded firmly.

"Who told you?" He continued slowly.

"Does it matter?" Erica said coldly.

"You're feisty, I like it." He said with a smirk that made her feel sick. He opened the door further and she walked inside. There was a small group of men gathered around a table in the middle of the room. If she did not know the reason why they were all here, the first thing she would have guessed was that it was some sort of illegal poker game for criminals. That was what it actually looked like, except for the missing cards and poker chips.  
>As she entered they all turned around to look who had arrived. From the look on their faces she could tell that the men most likely had not expected to see a woman walk through that door. There was a short silence while they stared at her, looking confused and like they were suspicious of whom she was. <em>If they only knew the real reason why she was there.<em>

"Well, when you're all done staring at me, maybe we can start this thing." Erica said firmly. Her heart was beating twice as fast as usual, but she had to keep herself calm so they would not expect anything.

"Well, that's up to Mark now, isn't it?" One of the men in front of her said and turned his gaze to the man who had opened the door for her, apparently named Mark. Erica slowly glanced at the man, who was now looking straight forward at the other men. The tension inside the small room was almost unbearable. Someone had to do something.

"Let's get down to business." The man, named Mark, said in almost made her laugh. The whole thing was so similar to all the action movies she had stashed in her movie collection. This was a meeting in an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere, the men were wanted criminals, and she was an agent working undercover. It was all _so_ similar, they even used the same phrases. But laughing was out of the question.

Erica followed Mark and sat down between him and one of the other men at the wooden table. Just as she sat down, her eyes caught the sight of a small gun tucked inside the jacket on the man next to her. She swallowed hard and tried not to panic. Now she _knew_ that the men were armed and dangerous. Of course she had expected them to be, but knowing was a lot harder than guessing.

"Okay so, the mission went down alright? No problems?" Mark asked, referring to the stolen C4, as he looked around at them.

"No, no problems." One of the other answered. "Did you think there would be?"

"Not at all." Mark answered coldly.

"What about the man you took?" Erica said firmly, without thinking. As they all shifted their gaze to her she realized that there was no way that she could have known that.

"What man?" Mark asked slowly as he stared at her.

"The man they mentioned on the news." Erica lied. "That annoying Chad Decker reported from the scene earlier today. He mentioned something about an agent who was taken. Maybe I was wrong then."

"What is she talking about Jason?" Mark said as he turned around to look at the younger man with short brown hair. Apparently he believed her. "What happened?"

"Look man, we had to take him. He saw too much." Jason answered slowly.

"Damn it! I thought I told you not to draw any more attention to this." Mark said loudly.

"That man we took were not involved with the cargo, we found him here outside the warehouse and brought him in." Jason answered.

"You did _what_?" Mark slowly as he stood up. "You stupid idiot!" He yelled and made Jason stand up by pulling his collar.

"What was I supposed to do? He was a freaking cop!" Jason said loudly as he pushed Mark away.

"Why do you always have to be so fucking careless?" Mark said loudly. "Now we're gonna have the fucking FBI here any minute!"

"Hey! This whole thing was your fault! You did this!" Jason answered. "I _never_ wanted this life!"

Erica watched as the two men stare at each other. She could see the anger in Mark's eyes and the vein bulging in his neck as he breathed deeply. The man apparently named Jason was much younger than the rest of the people inside. He couldn't be more than 20 years old. His eyes were filled with emotions, everyone could see that_. I never wanted this life. _The sentence made her realize. She could see the resemblance between him and Mark. They were brothers.

As she looked around at the men around the table they all sat with their eyes fixed on the table or their hands. No one was going to intervene with the two brothers fighting. Mark was the one in charge of this operation. They all looked up to him. They all answered to him. She had to make them talk again.

"Hey, let's just focus on what we're gonna do." Erica said slowly, waiting for their reaction. "Not on what's already been done." Silence followed.

"The girl's right." One of the other men said calmly and looked up at the two brothers. "If we want this to go down tomorrow, we have to start. The bomb is not even complete yet."

"I thought it was supposed to be done already?" Erica asked, trying to find out more about it. So far this was going well.

"There were some missing pieces." The man answered.

"Missing pieces?" Mark intervened. "We're going to blow the building up tomorrow with what exactly then? Vinegar and baking soda maybe?"

"I'll get it done in time." The man answered with a small glare.

"You better." Mark muttered as he sat down again. Erica glanced at Jason, whom was still standing a few meters away. She could see the regret and pain in his eyes as he looked at her briefly.

"Other than that, is everything ready for the hit?" Erica asked.

"Yes. I believe so." Mark said firmly. "But we need to load all the weapons that were stolen, tonight. There is no time for that tomorrow."

"I'll get them." One of the men said as he stood up and walked out of the room.

"Hey sweetheart, can you get the ammo? It's in the back." Mark said and gave her that disgusting smirk as he glanced at her. And the word sweetheart. She wanted to throw up. Only one person was allowed to call her that. Her heart clenched at the thought of him. She wished he was there with her. Then she would have been safe. He would have protected her against them.

"Sure." Erica forced the words out of her mouth along with a fake smile. As Mark turned to discuss something with the rest of the people at the table Erica stood up and walked over to where he had pointed. She found three boxes filled with bullets to different weapons. She knew them all. She carried a gun with her everywhere after all. As she started putting the boxes in a pile, she felt someone come up next her.

"You shouldn't be here." Jason said quietly as he helped her sort the ammunition into piles.

"And why is that?" Erica asked slowly as she glanced at the table but no one seemed to notice them.

"Because you're a cop." Jason whispered and she immediately tensed and she could have sworn that her heart stopped beating. _This is it. I'm going to die._ But nothing happened. Jason just kept going.

"What are you talking about?" She tried, although her voice was definitely failing.

"Oh come on. You don't think I've seen you on the news?" Jason said. "'_Agent Erica Evans saves hostages from getting killed'_." He continued in a mocking tone.

Erica just stood there, watching as Jason divided the last boxes of ammunition into the three different piles. He knew that she worked for the FBI. He knew that she was working undercover. He knew everything.

"There is a door in the next room that leads outside. If you need to leave, you know where it is." Jason said and picked up a pile and walked away. Erica remained frozen in her spot, feeling confused and not sure about what was happening. But the she grabbed a box and walked back to the table and sat down.

"_Erica we need to know the target." Paul's voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts as she sat down. _

"You need help to load them?" Erica asked and received a nod in response.

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

_(break)_

Twenty minutes had passed since Erica found out that Jason knew about who she was. They had been loading weapons and discussing the last details of their plans. Erica knew both their target and the identity of the rest of the men inside. Mark had been throwing comments at her but she shrugged him off and focused on how she was going to get out of there. She needed to leave.

Paul and Chris had been talking more often into the mic and they wanted her to get out now so that they could move in with the team. But the word 'Christmas' had not been mentioned yet. Not only did she not know how she was going to put the word in a sentence that would not make the other suspicious, but how she was going to get out was also a small problem. Jason had told her about the door in the back, and she believed him, except that she could not just leave.

"_Erica you need to get out now! There is another car on its way towards the warehouse." Chris demanded. _

Erica flinched at the loud voice coming to her ear through the headset. Jason had apparently noticed because he gave her a questioning look. When she saw that none other than him had seen her, she brought her hand to her ear slowly. He gave her a small nod before turning back towards Mark.

"You know Mark, if we're gonna do this tomorrow, I'm gonna need some sleep." Jason said.

"So sleep then." Mark muttered without looking up.

"Don't forget to hide everything like the last time." Jason said, but not making any moves to leave.

"Yeah, whatever." Mark said and looked up. "Why aren't you leavin' then?"

"I am." Jason said slowly as he glanced at Erica. Just then she realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to help her get out without anyone noticing.

"Oh, I get it." Mark said with a smirk. "You want the girl to join you, am I right?"

"What? No!" Jason said.

"Oh, don't be shy now, brother." Mark continued. "Everybody has needs. Although I would rather have her to myself, she's all yours for tonight."

In any other case Erica would have had the man pressed to the floor with her gun pointed at him, but right now she did not care about the comments or looks she was getting. All she wanted was to get out and go home to where it was safe. Jason looked as disgusted with Mark as she felt, but he was obviously doing his best to help her by ignoring his brother.

"What do you say? You want to join my dear brother here and make him a happy man?" Mark continued as he leaned back in his chair with that giant smirk on his face.

"Well, how can I say no?" Erica answered with a small smile, fake but believable. "A woman has needs too, you know."

Mark just whistled as he turned around and focused on the work he was doing. Erica slowly let out a shaky breath as she started to make her way towards Jason and the door. But before she reached either, another door slammed somewhere in the warehouse. All the men snapped their heads up and looked at the closed door. Footsteps could be heard behind it, coming closer and closer. Suddenly the door burst open and Erica's ice blue eyes clashed with a pair of dark brown ones she had seen before.

"Erica?"

"Who are you?" She said slowly, trying to pretend she did not know him. But she did. He worked at the FBI along with her and Paul. She had been on a few missions with him before. As she watched him, she realized everything. He was the kidnapped agent, and yet he was not. He must have been working as a double agent. John Scott was the leader of this whole organization.

"Erica." He said with a smile. "Surely you recognize me, don't you? After all, we worked together at the FBI a few months ago."

"FBI?" Mark said loudly as he stood up abruptly. "She's FBI?"

"Yes, you idiot." John answered quickly. "Don't you ever watch the news?"

"Why would I?" Mark said. "I'm on them."

"Then let me tell you who this really is." John said as he reached out and trailed his finger along Erica's jawbone. She flinched and turned her head away.

"Erica Evans here is one of the highest agents here in New York. She is a field agent, and a damn good one." John said with a grin as he looked at her before sitting down next to Mark and the rest, trusting Jason to guard her exit. "She is also a better fighter than I am, but not as strong though."

"Erica Evans?" Jason interrupted quickly. "I heard her name on the news some time ago. They said you saved the hostages from that building. "

"That's right." Erica answered slowly. Her heart was pounding inside her chest and her hands were shaking slightly as she focused on what Jason was telling her.

"When was it?" Jason asked slowly.

"A while after Christmas." She said lamely. They would definitely figure that out, but this was her only chance. And as soon as she said the word she could hear Paul shouting at the agents through her headset. It was just a matter of minutes until they would storm in through the door like small children coming down the stair at Christmas, looking for presents. Field agents were often like that, especially the SWAT team, always eager to run inside and apprehend the suspects, clad in their dark blue flak jackets and precious submachine guns. But she needed to get out before they came, or she might complicate the apprehending. She glanced at the men at the table, then to the door and finally at Jason. He seemed to understand what she was going to do and gave her a small nod.

Everything after that happened so fast that she barely realized that she was outside until the cold air filled her lungs. After she had pushed Jason out of the way, she ran out the door as fast as she could. She heard them shouting behind her as she ran, but she was outside. That was all that mattered at the moment. That, and the fact that she needed to get back to the team. She knew that they would not stay inside the warehouse. As she stopped behind a tree for a second to catch her breath, she listened and looked around to try and find out which way to go. But it was still pitch dark and she could hardly see anything in front of her. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness Erica realized that there was no sign of either Paul or the team, which was odd. They should have been here by now.

Erica quickly reached up with her hand only to discover that the headset was no longer in her ear. She had probably lost it during her run from the warehouse. As she reached down with one hand to pull out her phone, she froze. At first she thought she had imagined it, but then she heard it again. Loud voices. _Their_ voices.

And they were coming closer and closer. Erica could hear John shouting at the other men, but she could not make out what they were saying. _Probably what they're gonna do when they find me, _she thought. She pressed her body against the tree and tried to see where they were. Her whole body was shaking with fear and the adrenalin was pumping through her like a drug. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage, feeling almost as if it would explode.

The first gunshot hit the bottom of the tree. The second one hit just above her head. Erica ducked out of the way and then she ran again, towards the place she thought her team was. Branches and leaves scratched her face as she ran though them. Even though her eyes had adjusted as much as possibly to the darkness, it was still hard to see anything, especially when you're running as fast as you can. Then a few more shots were fired and something grazed her arm. It felt as of something had bitten her, not very painful but it made her loose her concentration for a second. And that was all it took for her to place her foot down wrong and trip over a large tree root.

When she landed there was an excruciating pain in her chest and suddenly it was hard to breathe. She heard three closely followed gunshots, but they did not sound like the ones the men used. _They were finally here._ Tears blurred her vision as she tried to breathe through the pain, which only made it harder. She blinked rapidly to clear her eyes from the salty tears when she felt someone kneel down next to her.

"Kyle?" She whispered confusedly as her eyes caught her saviors. But talking hurt more than it used to and she let out a whimper of pain.

"Erica, what hurts?" Kyle asked worriedly as he searched her clothing for blood or any kind of wound. When she did not answer him, he tried again. "Please Erica, you have to try and tell me what hurts."

"My chest." She managed to get out. Kyle opened her jacket and quickly inspected her ribcage.

"I think you have a broken rib." He said as he put his hands under her body and carefully lifted her off the cold ground. "It's gonna be fine. Soon you'll be in a hospital."

"Kyle, it hurts." Erica cried into his shoulder. "Please, please make it stop. Please."

"I know. I know." He said as he carried her towards the place he knew the FBI was. "You're gonna be fine. I promise."

_V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V - V – V – V – V – V – V – V – V_

_I don't know if i still have any fans out there who will read this chapter since it's been like two months since my last update..._

_The ones who will, YOU ARE ALLOWED to hate me. _

_Anyway...this chapter was pretty hard to write and I hit the delete button many many times. But I hope you like it (:_

_xx _


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